Wednesday, February 22, 2012

ARGENTINE TRAIN SLAMS INTO STATION, KILLING 49

ARGENTINE COMMUTER TRAIN
CRASHES, KILLING 49 PEOPLE
Buenos Aires (Reuters) - A packed commuter train plowed into the buffers at a Buenos Aires station during Wednesday’s morning rush hour, killing at least 49 people and injuring more than 670 in Argentina’s worst rail crash in three decades. Passengers said the force of the collision propelled the second train car inside the first carriage, trapping dozens of people in the wreckage alongside the busy platforms at Once station. Officials said faulty brakes were suspected of causing the accident and witnesses said the train hurtled into the buffers.  Most of the victims were traveling in the first two cars of the eight-car train, which Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said was carrying between 1,200 and 1,500 passengers. “The train entered Once station at 26 kilometers per hour (16 mph) ... we suppose there was some flaw in the brakes,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Telam. “The train folded up on itself.”

Relatives and friends wandered around the train station later in the day, trying to find news of missing loved ones.  The 28-year-old driver remained in intensive care and about 460 of the injured were still being treated in local hospitals. Wednesday’s crash is bound to fuel criticism of the country’s dilapidated and overcrowded rail services, which are run by private companies with hefty state subsidies and are prone to accidents and delays. Argentina’s once-extensive rail network was largely dismantled during the privatizations of the 1990s.  The company holding the Sarmiento line concession, TBA, said it was investigating the cause of the collision. Some 10 million passengers travel every month on the Sarmiento line, which links Buenos Aires to western suburbs.  The worst train accidents in Argentine history include a 1970 crash that killed more than 230 people and another in 1978, in which about 55 died, local media said.

A commuter train plowed into a barrier at a Buenos Aires station, killing 49 people and injuring more than 670 in Argentina’s worst rail accident in more than 30 years.  In 1970, 200 people died when two trains crashed north of Buenos Aires.  Eight years later, 56 people were killed when a train hit a truck in Argentina’s Santa Fe province.  This body means an invitation to death.  Due the association with this body I am dying and in danger at every step of life.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 
So when the general apprehension of destruction comes, whether individual or collective, we shall try our best to utilise our time with the high conception, within divinity. That is very good. It is also appreciable that where the apprehension of danger is acute, one runs there for relief work. That is laudable. Circumstances may vary, and how far the intention is correct in a particular case is to be judged. ... Our aim will be to engage ourselves always in this distribution. Again, distribution may not be the only work. Some are seen to distribute, some are supplying, and others are cooking. Different functions are necessary to save the people.  Some disasters are acute and some minor, but disasters are always occurring. It is not only limited to the human beings, but so many insects, animals and others are also in need of receiving such vibration that comes from the Divine layer.

Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Mahārāja :
“Distribute In Danger”
http://www.scsmath.com/
http://www.bvml.org/SBRSM/did.html

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