A train that went careening over the end of elevated tracks in the Netherlands on Monday was left teetering about 30 feet above the ground. But no one was injured or killed in the accident — thanks to a sculpture of a whale’s tail that stopped the train from plunging.
“It’s like the scene of a Hollywood movie,” said Ruud Natrop, a spokesman for safety in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond area, where the accident occurred. “Thank God the tail was there.”
The derailment, in the city of Spijkenisse, happened around 12:30 a.m. on Monday, according to local news outlets. The driver was the only person on the city train and was unharmed, Mr. Natrop said, and was taken to the hospital for an evaluation and then to the police station for questioning.
Mr. Natrop said there was no indication that the driver had done anything wrong, and train officials are investigating how safety systems designed to stop the train failed.
Locals couldn’t resist coming out to see the strange sight of a train car dangling over the platform edge atop the sea creature’s 32-foot tail. In the background of news footage that captured the initial aftermath, laughter could be heard. But officials cautioned that onlookers should abide by coronavirus measures and keep their distance.
Discussions have begun on how to remove the train, a process that will require heavy equipment such as cranes anchored into the ground.
“It’s raining constantly — the grass is not steady,” Mr. Natrop said. “That’s a problem.”
Maarten Struijs, who created the sculpture, told the Dutch broadcaster NOS that the image of the train car balancing on the tail looked like a work of art itself, but added that he was worried about the structure of the nearly 20-year-old structure.
“This is very over the top,” said Joey Bremer, a photographer whose tweeted photos of the dangling train soon went viral.
When he arrived at the scene shortly after the accident — at the end of a train line, in a residential neighborhood — it was quiet, “no panic, absolutely nothing,” he said. But when he returned in the daylight, he said, hundreds of people had gathered.
“It’s almost an attraction,” he said.
Mr. Bremer said he was surprised by the attention his pictures had garnered, when he woke up to thousands of retweets and hundreds of messages on Monday.
“I stood there full of disbelief last night,” he said. “I’ve been doing this job for about 10 years, but this is one to remember. You can’t make this up.”
Source : Nytimes
