It is still unclear exactly how the accident involving a school minibus at a rail level crossing in Buggenhout (East Flanders) happened. Two adults and two children died when a train crashed into the vehicle on Tuesday.
“The difficulty is that the two key witnesses have died: the bus driver and the supervisor,” says VRT NEWS journalist Caroline Van den Berghe.
“The question is whether the five seriously injured children will ever be able to reconstruct part of the story.”
“The Infrabel camera recorded everything. Perhaps part of the story lies there.”
Belgian railtrack operator Infrabel confirms the crossing barriers were down. The lights were at red, according to the CCTV footage.
Medical disaster lead faced challenging situation
A&E doctor Ignace Demeyer has spoken of how he experienced the confusion of Tuesday morning: “The bus attendant had sadly passed away, so we didn’t know how many children were on the bus".
For a long time in the morning, it was unclear what the toll of the accident was. "Like the school management, we didn’t know how many children were on the minibus," says emergency doctor Ignace Demeyer, who took on the role of medical disaster director yesterday.
“There are often children who are ill or cycle to school when the weather is nice. The supervisor normally notes down which children board the bus. But she had sadly passed away. So there were no records we could check at that moment.”
"It wasn’t straightforward. That’s why it took longer before we knew the number.”