«A second — and there is no longer a window behind»
More than a hundred people were injured and one died in Kemerovo due to a collision of two trams, one of which lost control. According to preliminary data, the tram's brakes could have failed.
A passenger of the damaged vehicle told how it all happened.
Photo courtesy of the publication's hero
The accident happened early in the morning, when residents of Kemerovo were on their way to work. Daria turned out to be a passenger on a tram that lost control.
— This is tram number ten. He’s traveling from the Rudnichny district to the Central district,” Daria began. — The route is popular. In addition, the other bridge that could be crossed was closed. Therefore, the load in this direction has increased. This is almost the only available transport by which you can get to the center.
– Relatively. There are much worse trams. The one that crashed today is the most in the city. I’ll say this: it’s not new, but it’s not a wreck either.
– There were, indeed, a lot of people. This is the situation every day. According to rumors, they seem to have added more trams to this flight. But I go to the center every day, and the trams are always full in the morning.
– Approximately from the Shakhtarov Palace of Culture, the tram began to pick up speed. But there was no panic at first. I just felt that we were going very fast. Only at the first turn on Logovaya Highway did I realize that something was wrong.
I was standing in the center of the tram, so I didn’t see how the doors flew out and people fell onto the road. I found out about this later when I watched the video. Apparently, the passengers were thrown off due to sharp turns at full speed. People piled on the doors, which could not hold up.
Everything happened quickly. At first no one understood anything. At the first sharp turn, the passengers behind started screaming. Then everyone seemed to smile out of awkwardness when the tram straightened out. And then the next turn, after which panic began. A second and there is no longer a window behind. Then the tram shook from side to side, and someone started screaming. I asked the passengers not to be hysterical, saying that everything would be fine. Most likely, it was at that moment that I was afraid that I would be run over. And then she started to panic. It seemed to me that something happened to the driver, since we were rushing at such speed.
Photo provided by the hero of the publication
According to Daria, the seats and metal holders flew off inside the tram.
“This is probably the most terrible incident in my life,” the interlocutor continues. – Next to me on the tram stood a girl who looked no more than 14 years old. She was alone. At some point I turned to her, she fell. When the tram stopped, we somehow managed to get up. It turned out bad. People were lying on top of each other, including men. But everyone slowly got up. By the way, passengers also helped each other pass things on if someone lost something.
The girl who was standing with me began to cry. I pushed her forward towards the aisle so that she would definitely come out. And then I lost her. I don't know how she is. Well, there didn’t seem to be any visible injuries on her.
Daria wasn’t seriously injured: “I have a couple of bruises. The driver who got pinched suffered the most. Passengers immediately began to pull her out. I also noticed a couple of people with minor wounds. When people got off the tram, most went in different directions. Now they write that more than 100 people were injured, apparently they counted the people on the two trams. Both of them were full.”
“Ambulances, rescuers, firefighters, and police arrived quickly,” adds Daria. “It turned out to be difficult to leave that place.” Several more followed our tram. There were also trams going in the opposite direction. People were dropped off from all of them. There were crowds at the stops. So I had to walk to work. Then I went to the emergency room myself to get checked just in case.