16 Die, 62 Hurt as Passenger and Freight Trains Collide Head-On Southeast of Paris

MELUN, France â€”  An overnight passenger train from the Riviera to Paris smashed head-on into a freight train Thursday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 62.

Railway officials said the freight train rolled into the passenger train’s path while switching tracks about 6:30 a.m. near the station in Melun, 30 miles southeast of Paris.

Jacques Fournier, president of the French national railway, said both trains were traveling 35 to 45 m.p.h. Fournier said the freight train passed by a signal, but he did not know whether the light was red or green at the time. He said the signal was in working order.

The passenger train from Nice, made up of four sleeper cars with about 100 passengers and several cars carrying automobiles, was knocked off the rails by the collision with the 12-car, 900-ton freight train. The front sleeping car was hurled atop the passenger train’s engine.

Most of the casualties were in the lead sleeper car. Fournier said that 22 of the 62 hurt were seriously injured.

Transport Minister Paul Quilles announced an inquiry. Prime Minister Edith Cresson expressed condolences to relatives.

The passenger train was not one of France’s vaunted high-speed trains. They use the Nice-Paris route also, but a slower engine makes the overnight run to give passengers more sleeping time.