NARVA - Last week's Moscow-Tallinn train incident sent a chill throughout the country and may result in constructive changes to railroad crossings across the Baltic state, the Rescue Department said this week.
The locomotive and three passenger wagons of the Moscow-Tallinn train derailed on July 8 after hitting a fuel truck at the Auvere crossing in northeastern Estonia.
A woman in the cab of the truck was killed, and the truck's driver was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. Several of the train's 149 passengers required medical aid.
The truck was carrying some 30 tons of oil-shale oil, a fuel used for heating purposes that is far less flammable than car fuel. However, rescue department workers managed to stop the fuel leak, preventing an explosion.
Mati Raidma, head of the rescue department, told the daily Postimees that Estonia could have witnessed the worst catastrophe in years should the locomotive have hit the oil tank instead of the truck's cab.
Witnesses told The Baltic Times that the train operator failed to react and hit the brakes in time, resulting in a collision of about 100 kilometers per hour.
Upon impact, the cab was ripped from the truck and the locomotive derailed, landing on its side.
Local residents said that trucks often cross Auvere at high speeds and that drivers pay little attention to train traffic.
According to department experts, the train tragedy could have been avoided if the crossing would have had a speed bump.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has considered the installation of speed bumps since March, as the number of train and car collisions has increased this year, reportedly due to the removal of crossing turnpikes.
