BULLY-LES-MINES, France (AP) – A French high-speed train driver was killed on Tuesday and 16 people were injured when his locomotive slammed into a truck carrying military equipment at a railway crossing in northern France, local authorities said.
The driver of the truck was detained, and an aggravated manslaughter investigation was opened, but it is too early to determine the exact cause of the crash, Prosecutor Etienne Thieffry told reporters.
The head of the national railway authority SNCF, Jean Castex, said the railroad crossing gates were functioning correctly.
Rescue crews rushed to the scene after the crash at a railroad crossing in the town of Bully-les-Mines on a train route leading from Dunkirk to Paris, the regional administration said in a statement. It said that the driver was killed and 16 people were injured, two of them seriously, and that more than 200 train passengers were evacuated.
The facade of the locomotive was badly mangled and the truck also severely damaged, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. The train remained on the tracks, and the railway was closed while emergency teams worked in the area.
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