Five people were injured in a metro train collision in Pechatniki

The cause of the collision between two Moscow metro trains was an error by the driver-instructor, who turned off the automatic speed control system (ASC), the Moscow Department of Transport reported. In the morning, a subway train stopped at the Pechatniki station on the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line was hit by an empty train following it into the depot. The metro initially reported two victims, then their number increased to five. A driver with 20 years of experience driving trains, trapped in the cab, suffered a broken leg.

The accident at the Pechatniki station on the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line of the capital’s metro occurred on October 11 at 10:30. The following empty Yauza train crashed into a train with passengers standing on the platform. The capital’s Department of Transport stated that the cause of the accident was “the run-up of a train without passengers, which was being ferried to the depot” onto a train stationed at Pechatniki. Initially, two victims were reported, then their number increased to five people.

The driver, who was trapped in the cab between the trains, suffered a broken leg and other moderate injuries.

He was pulled out and hospitalized, like the other victims.

The clash at Pechatniki caused a stir. The capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the hospitalization of the victims. “The rest of the victims (with the exception of the driver.— “Kommersant”) minor damage, their condition is satisfactory, nothing threatens life and health,” the mayor said in Telegram. The head of the capital’s metro, Viktor Kozlovsky, explained that the train collision occurred due to an error by the driver-instructor, who was transporting the empty Yauza train to the depot.

“The reason for the train rolling over has been determined – it was an incorrect decision to manually disable the ARS system by the driver of a train without passengers,” said Mr. Kozlovsky.

According to him, the driver interviewed had 20 years of experience driving trains, but had already admitted that he had “made a serious mistake.” The capital’s metro clarified that he became a driver-instructor in 2022, and before that he worked as a chief auditor in subway structures.

A similar accident occurred with two trains in July 2019and at the Kashirskaya station. Then the trains were moving to a dead end, and the driver was also injured as a result of the collision. The cause of the emergency was called “spontaneous release of faulty brakes.”

The largest accident in the capital’s subway occurred in July 2014, when three train cars derailed 200 meters from the Slavyansky Boulevard station (100 people were injured, 19 were killed). Incidents of a more local nature also occurred in the metro area. So, in March 2014 After the tracks between Partizanskaya and Shchelkovskaya stations were flooded, train traffic was stopped for several hours due to damage to a water pipe (as a result, one person died). In June 2013 Due to a short circuit in the section between the Lenin Library and Okhotny Ryad stations, several trains were blocked in the tunnel (80 people were injured, 27 were hospitalized). In April 2012 An abrupt stop of the escalator at the Komsomolskaya station caused a massive fall of passengers (ten people were injured). In June 2008 During the stretch between the Vladykino and Otradnoe stations, three cars left the tracks due to a broken rail (one victim was hospitalized). In March 2006 On the stretch between the Voikovskaya and Sokol stations, a concrete pile fell into the tunnel in front of a moving train, but the driver managed to brake urgently. In May 2005 due to the blackout, 52 of 170 metro stations were without power (20 thousand people had to be evacuated from the tunnels). In March 1994 Within 12 hours, three accidents occurred on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya line (20 people were injured, 9 were hospitalized). One of the most high-profile accidents in the capital’s subway occurred in February 1982when, due to a mechanism failure, one of the escalators at the Aviamotornaya station began to move downward with acceleration (8 people died, 30 passengers were injured).

After today’s accident at Pechatniki, train traffic from the Lyublino station to the Dubrovka station was stopped.

In the opposite direction, trains ran at increased intervals. Mr. Sobyanin promised that traffic would be restored within a few hours. Mosgortrans allocated 59 buses for a compensatory route from Dubrovka to Lyublino with stops at each of the closed stations along the way. The Moscow Department of Transport asked passengers to use the Bolshaya Koltsevaya and Zamoskvoretskaya lines, MCC, MCD D2 and other ground transport routes during this time.

Alexander Voronov