The railway contact network was damaged on 3 July at 12:18 p.m. on the Olaine–Torņakalns railway section, near the former ‘Atgāzene’ stop. While the Škoda electric train (train No. 6728, composition L16V) was in motion, a contact wire suddenly broke, causing the train’s pantograph to be torn off.
“The pantograph of the new Škoda train broke off and hit the train body as it fell, landing on the ground. In this case, we can speak of luck in misfortune – if the pantograph had hit the train window instead of the body, the broken glass would have posed a real risk of injury or even death to passengers,” explained Jāzeps Luksts, head of the Railway Accident Investigation Department.
The Office considers that, although in this case the damage to the railway contact network only caused inconvenience to rail passengers who were unable to reach their planned destinations on time, the nature of the accident indicates a significant safety risk to train traffic and passenger transport.
Given the potentially dangerous consequences of incidents related to the railway contact network, the Bureau has launched an initial assessment of the accident to determine the possible causes of the damage to the contact network and the train’s pantograph.
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