“Of course, the causes should be investigated and those responsible should be identified,” he wrote. The line had to be partly closed in 2014 so tracks could be repaired.Įbrard, who leads Mexico’s efforts to obtain coronavirus vaccines, has been considered a potential presidential candidate in 2024. Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard called the collapse “the most terrible accident we have ever had in mass transportation.” Ebrard was Mexico City’s mayor from 2006 to 2012, when the affected line was built.Īllegations of poor design and construction on the subway line emerged soon after the Ebrard left office as mayor. Authorities at the time welded steel diagonal braces to the bottom of the beam, chipped out and repoured fractured concrete elements. In 2017, authorities patched and widened the column by injecting resins, swathing it in carbon fiber, building a jacket of additional rebar around the base and pouring concrete around the collar.Īuthorities also found that one of the horizontal beams had come loose from its support at the top of a vertical column and was sagging - the kind of failure that could have contributed to Monday’s collapse. Like many of the dozen subway lines, it runs underground through more central areas of the city of 9 million but is on elevated concrete structures on the outskirts.Ī report issued by the subway system including photos in 2017 showed that the base of one vertical column supporting the tracks had cracked and shed layers of concrete because not enough steel rebar stirrups had been used when it was built around 2010. The collapse occurred on Line 12, the subway’s newest, that stretches to the city’s south side. in the earthquake, and the authorities didn’t pay attention,” Yañez said, noting similar problems were reported at another nearby station, but nothing was done. “That part there was already declared bad. The scene shook him because he had exited the metro at that same station earlier in the day. Helicopters landed at a nearby Walmart to ferry the injured to hospitals. He saw a cloud of dust and falling debris followed by an eerie silence until emergency vehicles began arriving. Julio Yañez, a 67-year-old lawyer whose apartment overlooks the collapsed metro line, was working at his computer when he heard a loud noise and felt his building shake. Authorities at the time had done patchwork repairs on the columns and horizontal beams. In October 1975, at least 26 people were killed in another accident.Ī magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2017 exposed dangerous construction defects in the elevated line near where Monday’s accident occurred. In 2015, a train that did not stop on time crashed into another at the Oceania station, injuring 12. In March 2020, a collision between two trains at the Tacubaya station left one passenger dead and injured 41. The Mexico City Metro - which is among the world's cheapest with tickets costing about 25 cents -has had at least three serious accidents since its inauguration half a century ago. “Then a guy in a white shirt with blood on his arms, his hands and chest came out and another guy came to help him here on the sidewalk, and he was there trembling,” he said. The overpass was about 5 meters (16 feet) above the road in the borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists.Ībelardo Sánchez, a 38-year-old cook, was just closing up his sandwich shop beside the metro line when he said the ground shook, a tremendous noise echoed, lights flickered and the air filled with dust and the smell of burning wires.
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