11 grain wagons in a ravine near Rijeka. Rail operator says the track is not to blame

A freight train carrying grain derailed at Meja station near Rijeka (Croatia) shortly after nine o'clock this morning. Eleven wagons ended up in a ravine. Nobody was injured.

According to the Croatian company HŽ Infrastruktura, the state rail infrastructure manager, the driver reported before the crash that the brakes had failed and that he could not stop the train. The locomotive and two wagons remained at the station, which is closed to all traffic. Major material damage was caused.

HŽ Infrastruktura CEO Damir Lončarić called for tougher checks on the locomotives and wagons of private carriers after the accident. The train was owned by a private carrier. So the infrastructure manager has already said where the cause should not be sought:

"If this is a braking problem, then it is certainly not an infrastructure problem" (translated)

Croatia's Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković told the Rijeka daily Novi list that, based on the data gathered so far, the accident was not caused by the condition of the track. Investigators are looking into whether it was a technical fault or human error. The exact cause will be known only after further investigation.

"That will be established later. We are waiting for additional information" (translated)

Removal of the derailed wagons is reportedly to begin today. It is not yet known when traffic at Meja will resume. Passengers between Rijeka and Plase station are being carried by replacement transport, while trains towards Zagreb are running from there without disruption.

The accident came just two months after two serious incidents on Croatian railways. In August, a passenger train and a freight train collided at Škrinjar near Bjelovar, and 25 people were injured. A day later, at Škrljevo station near Rijeka, a freight train ran a stop signal and nearly collided with a passenger train.

All Slovenian media that reported on the accident are relying on the same report from the STA (the Slovenian Press Agency), so there is no other information on the cause for now.