The Secretary of the Navy (Semar) reported this afternoon that 13 people died due to the derailment of the Transisthmian train this Sunday in Oaxaca, on Line Z on the route from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos.
“As a result of this accident, 139 people are out of danger, 98 injured, of which 36 are receiving hospital medical attention and the rest are not seriously injured, and unfortunately 13 people lost their lives,” the agency reported in a statement.
Semar expressed its condolences to the families of the deceased and said that “it will continue to collaborate in a coordinated manner with the competent authorities to clarify the facts.”
The Transisthmian train, part of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a megaproject that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through trains, ports and industrial hubs, derailed this Sunday morning.
The governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara, reported that an operational emergency response module was immediately installed, in a coordinated effort between the State Government, the Municipal Government and federal institutions, with the objective of responding to the emergency in a timely manner and safeguarding the integrity of the population.
“We are attentive to the work of the Ministry of the Navy to support users of the Interoceanic Corridor. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), IMSS-Wellbeing and the State Government (of Oaxaca) participate. As we have more data we will expand the information,” wrote the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, in a message on social networks.
Previously, in a statement, the agency indicated that the CIIT reported that “a railway event was recorded” near the Zapotec community Nizanda, in the municipality of Asunción Ixtaltepec, state of Oaxaca, on Line Z, “in which 9 crew members and 241 passengers were traveling, aboard two locomotives and four passenger cars.”
“In this event, the derailment of the main machine occurred,” stated the report published on social networks.
Line Z runs from Veracruz to Salina Cruz and is 212 kilometers long.
Semar explained that from the first moment “immediate attention is provided to users and coordination is maintained with local authorities to attend to the event, as well as to collect the corresponding technical and operational information.”
And he added that “as confirmed and complete data is available, the information will be expanded through official channels, in order to keep the population informed with responsibility and transparency.”
With this new communication route, Mexico seeks to boost international trade by uniting Asia with the east coast of the United States and Europe through that passage, the narrowest point in the country that connects the Pacific with the Atlantic and that seeks to compete with the Panama Canal.
With information from EFE.
