© picture alliance / Zoonar | Werner LEROOY
One day after the train disaster in Buggenhout, in the Belgian province of East Flanders, which killed four people, there is still uncertainty about the cause of the disaster.
On Tuesday morning, just after 8 a.m., a van carrying students drove over a railroad crossing for an as-yet unknown reason, even though the lights were on red and the barriers were down. The van, containing a driver, a companion and seven students, was caught by an oncoming train and catapulted meters away. The toll: the driver, the attendant and two students did not survive the impact; five students were taken to the hospital in critical condition. Their condition is stable.
A day after the disaster, Flemish media provide more details about the victims. Noureddine Zerrouak, a 49-year-old man from Lebbeke, a neighboring municipality of Buggenhout, was at the wheel of the van. He leaves behind a wife and five children. The two deceased schoolchildren, 15-year-old Mohamed and 12-year-old Arthur lived in Bornem, in the province of Antwerp.
The boyfriend of 27-year-old guidance counselor Anke Robrecht, who also did not survive the accident, testified in the Flemish media. He stated that his girlfriend was not supposed to be in the van. "She occasionally substitutes for that school. Normally she's not often on the same bus, it changes depending on whether people are sick or not. So there was a good chance someone else would have been on it," he testified to VRT NWS.
Cause still unclear
How the accident could have happened is still unclear. The fact that the main witnesses, the driver and the attendant are deceased complicates the work of investigators. They hope that the five school children who survived the accident will be able to give them more clarity about the exact circumstances. Camera footage from Infrabel, Belgium's rail operator, should also make investigations easier.
"One of the worst rail crossing accidents in Belgian history," is how Infrabel described the train accident in Buggenhout. Infrabel is making great efforts to make level crossings on the tracks safer. Since 2005, more than 400 level crossings in Belgium have been removed or replaced.
Illustration picture: © picture alliance / Zoonar | Werner LEROOY