Thousand plus trapped in hot train

Photo: Lugeja foto

This Saturday afternoon, over a thousand people headed from Tallinn to Kloogaranna Festival got trapped in the train for 40 minutes, as the vehicle filled with hot air lost power in Saue railway station, thus unable to open its doors. Allegedly, the engine was pulling excess weight.

Launching from Balti Jaam station at 1:15 pm, the electric train made it to Saue without a problem. There, it suddenly stopped, leaving uninformed travellers panicking. «Having lingered there for over half an hour, a child near me just up and collapsed,» said Kristy Hritjuk, programme manager for Estonian Film Days.

«My own kid’s face was white as snow, about to collapse, no oxygen to breathe. Women had started to weep,  that was no longer normal,» said Ms Hritjuk, who had been standing near a wagon door with the children, facing the platform.

In Ms Hritjuk’s opinion, the train – with no electricity and therefore not air-conditioned, heated up to 60^o Celsius, or more. «A nice man asked the conductor if we could break the glass, get to the emergency lever and open the doors one by one,» related the lady.

According to Ms Hritjuk, the attendant told them it was no use to break the glass as the security system was not working without the power. «And these very statements did trigger the panic,» she said.

The passengers still decided to break the glass; by pulling the lever, doors did open up. Thereafter, the train remained standing for five-six minutes more. People calmed down, the ride continued.

Ms Hritjuk says facing the unknown was the worst part of the ordeal – during the 40 minutes, the people had no information about what was going on.

According to the Elektriraudtee sales and marketing manager Norbert Kaareste, the «late» notice is posted on the company website.

«To begin with, we will have to underline that the 1:15pm Tallinn-Kloogarand train was used by an exceptional amount of people – tickets alone sold close to 700,» reads the announcement, published at the website. On July 27^th, the said train had 274 seats available.

The onboard information system warned train driver of malfunction hazard, as the wagons were exceedingly full. Reaching Saue, the driver decided not to travel on before notifying Elektriraudtee’s traffic management department of the problem.

Elektriraudtee decided the train may travel on. Even so, for the sake of safety, the train was limited to travel at 60 km/ only – instead of the usual 120 km/h.

Elektriraudtee issued apologies for inconvenience caused.