At least 13 dead when the Interoceanic Train derailed in Oaxaca

At least 13 people have died and 98 have been injured after the derailment that runs along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec this Sunday morning near the town of Nizanda, in the State of Oaxaca, as confirmed by the Secretary of the Navy. There were 250 people traveling on the train: 241 passengers and 9 crew members. The authorities have confirmed that of the almost one hundred injured, some 36 passengers have been admitted to hospital for major injuries, and five of them are in serious condition.

The derailment occurred when the main train left the track. The convoy is made up of two locomotives and four passenger cars. The train traveled on Line Z, which goes from Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca, to Coatzacoalcos, in the State of Veracruz. The line is owned by the Mexican Government and is part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor project, which since 2023 seeks to reactivate the railways in southern Mexico. This railway route, which was opened for tourism, connects the Pacific Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico.

“We felt that the train was coming very hard, we don’t know if it was left without brakes,” says a passenger in a video broadcast on social networks. The images show most of the cars in the convoy off the track. The narrator points out that he and his family were in the last car that was practically left on the tracks. The first images of the accident show that a good part of the convoy overturned in a ravine when the locomotive left the track. In another video, passengers are trapped in a carriage that has overturned to one side and are crying for rescue teams.

This is the second accident of the Interoceanic Train this week. On December 20, a convoy covering the FA Line – from Coatzacoalcos to Pakal-Na, in Chiapas – collided with a pipe that tried to overtake it. On that occasion there were no deaths or injuries, despite the fact that there were 148 passengers on board the railway.

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has sent a message on her social networks in which she has regretted the death of the 13 passengers and has assured that the emergency forces are caring for those affected by the derailment. “The injured are in IMSS hospitals in Matías Romero and Salina Cruz, as well as IMSS-Bienestar in Juchitán and Ixtepec,” he wrote. The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the train derailment.