Train Travelled without Driver for 90 Kilometres in Australia

A runaway train, loaded with iron ore finally had to be derailed after speeding through the remote and usually uninhabited inland districts of Australia for almost an hour. The train carrying 268 wagons started on its solo journey of nearly 90 kilometers when the driver got down from his chamber to carry out an inspection.

The train is owned by mining giant BHP, which owns four such locomotive trains in Australia. BHP finally decided to derail the train before it reached the town of Port Hedland near its Western Australia Pilbara site to avoid maximum damage of life and property. Still, the train that crashed off the rails damaging around 1,500 metres (1,600 yards) of tracks, though no one is hurt in the incident.

Though images released by The West Australian shows a chain of twisted wreckage after the incident, while some wagons are seen covered by their loads.

BHP confirmed the incident and informed more than 130 people were working to recover the train and fix the track, as the track is an important route for the enormous mining facility. Partial rail operations expected to resume in a week. Australia is one of the major sources of iron ore in the world.

The mine sites were still working and the reserves are maintained well, according to a BHP statement, “however they are not expected to cover the entire period of interruption. We will be liaising with our customers in relation to our contractual commitments over this period”.

On the other hand, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has declared that it is investigating the incident. Till now they haven’t found any indication of what had caused the train to move without the driver.

“We cannot speculate on the outcome of the investigation, however, we are working with the appropriate authorities and our focus remains on the safe recovery of our operations” the BHP statement replied.

After the news of the incident started to surface, BHP’s shares closed 0.48 percent lower to Aus. $33.39 in Sydney, as reports of the incident followed by the news of Anglo-Australian firm is facing a US$6.5 billion lawsuit over the deadly Samarco dam failure in Brazil in 2015 spread like wildfire. 19 people were killed and a wave of toxic waste was released when a dam burst at the mine, which is one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters.