The collapse of a metro bridge in Mexico City left numerous dead and injured. The affected line 12 is quite new – its list of shortcomings in the few years of operation
It was one of the last trips on the Mexico City subway line 12 late Monday night. It ended in death for 23 people, around 80 people were brought to hospitals, some with serious injuries.
It was shortly before 10:30 p.m. when a train on the “golden line” from the metro system of the Mexican capital was traveling at high speed between the Tezonco and Olivos stations in the southeast of the metropolis and suddenly an iron girder of the bridge system gave way. Several wagons fell around 20 meters. There are also children among the victims, said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who immediately went to the scene of the accident. Causes of the worst accident in Mexico City since the earthquake in September 2017 could have been botched construction and negligence by the authorities.
At the scene of the accident, the line runs above ground over the Avenida Tláhuac, which was still heavily used in the late evening. A surveillance video shows how a bridge pillar at the Olivos station suddenly gives way shortly before the train arrives, dust is thrown up, two wagons fall onto the street and at least one car is buried under them. Survivors later reported that the train was unusually full for this time and that many passengers had to stand.
Between five and six million people travel on Mexico’s subway every day, and it is one of the most widely used metro systems in the world. However, the wagons and the infrastructure are poorly maintained. Accidents, fires and temporary line closures caused by construction defects are part of the Mexico City metro, as is chronic overcrowding. Line 12 has a particularly long list of deficiencies.
Two of the orange-green painted wagons of the accident train crashed like a V onto the street during the disaster, until Tuesday morning 20 people could only be rescued dead, three died later in the hospital. 79 people were injured. “We suddenly heard a terrible noise and were thrown against the ceiling when the wagon fell,” said 26-year-old Mariana, who survived the accident slightly injured, the newspaper “El Universal”. For about a quarter of an hour, the passengers were trapped in the subway car until help came and they could break the windows. The rescue teams who rushed quickly tried to rescue the injured with ladders from the wagons. In the meantime, the rescue work has been stopped for fear of further collapsing structures.
Line 12 is the latest addition to Mexico’s large subway network. It was built from 2006 to 2012 under the then mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who is now the foreign minister of the left-wing government of Mexico. After the line was completed, there were investigations into corruption in the construction of 30 officials.
After the 2017 earthquake, residents near the site of the accident complained that the bridge structure of the subway had been damaged by the tremors. In 2018 the now collapsed pillar was apparently repaired. A year ago, the structure of line 12 was checked again at this point, said Mayor Sheinbaum in the night and promised an international investigation into the causes of the accident. In 2014, line 12 had been interrupted for months for repairs.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the collapse a “terrible tragedy” and expressed his solidarity with the victims and their families. “Absolutely nothing will be swept under the carpet, the people must know the truth,” said the head of state in his morning press conference on Tuesday. “A big hug for the relatives of the victims and all possible help for the injured”.
