At around 8:30 a.m. this morning, two trains crashed along the single track that runs from Belén, Heredia via Pavas and into the Pacific train station near the Bíblica Hospital in downtown San José, said reports in local media.

Preliminary reports by eyewitnesses indicate that two trains were traveling in the same direction when a vehicle impulsively crossed the train track as the first train was approaching, causing the conductor in the first train to apply the emergency brakes. This caused the train behind it to rear-end the first engine.

The collision caused injuries in 13 people, who were transferred to medical centers. Nine of the affected passengers were transferred with more serious injuries to the National Insurance Institute’s (INS) Trauma Hospital in La Uruca.

Traffic in the area is closed, and train service along the San José-Belén route is interrupted.

The precise location of the crash was near the intersection of the National Production Council (CNP, in Spanish) which is about 200 meters east of the McDonalds in Sabana Sur.