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Two high-speed trains collided near the village of Jablonov nad Turňou in Slovakia’s Rožňava district, leaving around one hundred people with minor injuries and two in critical condition.
According to local media, three passengers were trapped in the wreckage, and their condition remains unknown. Preliminary reports indicate that no fatalities have been recorded.
Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok stated that the crash was likely caused by human error, as one of the train drivers failed to yield to the other.
“I don’t want to speculate about the causes right now, but according to initial information, this was not a system failure, but a human factor. It appears that one of the locomotive drivers made a mistake and probably failed to give way, but this is only a preliminary version,” Šutaj Eštok said.
The collision between high-speed trains R 913 and R 914 Gemeran occurred shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time, just before a tunnel near Jablonov nad Turňou, at a point where a double-track section narrows to a single track. Rescue teams, firefighters, and police are currently on the scene.
According to Petra Klimešová, a spokesperson for Slovakia’s Emergency Medical Service Operations Center, two rescue helicopters and six ambulances were dispatched to the site.
Later, the Air Transport Europe rescue service reported that three additional helicopters were deployed, one of which returned to the scene due to the large number of injured passengers. Emergency medical teams are providing first aid, and the most seriously injured are being airlifted to hospitals.
