Archive for ‘lucky escape’

13/12/2019

Drivers and passengers have lucky escape after hole swallows cars in southeast China

  • Sinkhole suddenly opened up near subway station in city of Xiamen but no one is killed or injured
  • Taxi driver whose vehicle was swallowed up says he and his passenger were able to pull themselves free unaided
The hole opened up at a site in Xiamen. Photo: Weibo
The hole opened up at a site in Xiamen. Photo: Weibo

Two cars have been swallowed by a hole that opened up in the ground near a subway station in southeast China.

It is the latest of a string of ground collapses involving subway projects in mainland cities this year.

The 500 square metre hole opened up just before 10pm on Thursday near Lucuo station in Xiamen, a city in Fujian province.

The city’s subway operator said no one had died or been injured in the accident and the people in the two cars had been able to get out on their own.

The accident also caused water pipes to burst, flooding the station.
No injuries were reported after the incident. Photo: Weibo
No injuries were reported after the incident. Photo: Weibo
The road and station were temporarily closed after the accident, but normal services resumed on Friday morning.

One of the cars swallowed was a taxi, and the driver told Beijing News he had been driving along the road when he suddenly found the vehicle falling into the hole.

The man, surnamed Chang, dragged his passenger free and they were able to climb out of the pit unaided. He said the car had not been seriously damaged.

Three people are still missing after a similar accident in the southern city of Guangzhou earlier this month that swallowed a truck and electric bike.

Five workers were also killed in the eastern port city of Qingdao in May in an accident at a subway construction site.

Source: SCMP

13/11/2019

India train collision: Lucky escape for passengers in Hyderabad

Hundreds of passengers had a lucky escape after two trains collided head-on in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Twelve passengers suffered minor injuries and are being treated at a local hospital.

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident.

India has one of the largest train networks in the world but accidents are fairly common because much of the railway equipment is out of date.

The government has promised to modernise the network but the pace of the change has been slow.

source: The BBC

03/02/2019

Chinese boy, 3, has lucky escape after falling onto high-speed train line

  • Youngster was posing for photographs with his mother when he stumbled into the gap between bullet train and platform
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 03 February, 2019, 6:32pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 03 February, 2019, 6:32pm

The youngster was posing in front of a stationary bullet train at Wuchang Railway Station in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, while his mother was taking photographs and filming him as a souvenir of their ride home for the Lunar New Year holiday, news portal Thepaper.cn reported.

But when she asked him to take a step backwards, the child lost his footing and tumbled into the gap between the platform and the train.

An employee ran to help and after climbing down into the gap managed to lift the boy to safety, the report said.

Apart from being a little shaken, the child was unhurt and he and his family were able to continue on their journey home.

And thanks to the quick thinking of the station worker, the train was not even delayed.

With the Lunar New Year holiday officially set to get under way on Tuesday, hundreds of millions of people across the country have making their way home over recent days. The annual migration, known as chunyun in Chinese, puts a massive strain on the nation’s transport infrastructure.

Over the coming “golden week” – as the holiday is often known – an estimated 400 million trips will be made by train, with that figure rising to 2.99 billion for all trips made by rail, road and air over the 40-day travel period – from January 21 to March 1 – that covers the extended break taken by many migrant workers.

The huge numbers often lead to a spike in accidents and injuries during the holiday travel period.

In 2017 alone, 898 people were killed in railway-related accidents, with most of the fatalities attributed to people being hit by trains while trying to cross the track at non-designated spots, according to official figures.

Source: SCMP

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