Argentina train crash leaves 49 dead

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- The first two cars were packed as usual for the morning rush Wednesday, so tightly that people stood pressed flesh to flesh, sandwiched between bicycles and the few seats, many without so much as a strap to hold onto.

This train didn't lurch, though. It had trouble stopping at all, overshooting platform after platform and missing at least one station entirely as it rushed to the end of the line.

The train didn't come to a halt until it had slammed into a metal barrier at Buenos Aires' Once station. With eight cars carrying a mass of steel and humanity -- more than 1,200 people on board -- the momentum was devastating. Forty-nine people were killed and 600 were injured.

Windows exploded and the first cars were crushed into a jumble of glass, metal, plastic and bodies.

The cause wasn't immediately determined, but many pointed to a deteriorating rail system. Passengers said the conductor had appeared to be struggling with the brakes.

The dead included 48 adults and one child, most of whom had crowded into the first two cars to get ahead of the rush-hour crowds on arrival. The injured included 461 who were hospitalized, Transportation Secretary J.P. Schiavi said.

Passengers' friends and relatives were still rushing around the city hours later, checking emergency rooms and the city's two largest morgues for some sign of their loved ones.

Ezequiel Mercado, his mother-in-law and 10 other friends and family members frantically searched for his wife, Sabrina Espindola, 29, who didn't show up for work. They checked nine hospitals before heading to the morgue.

"I went everywhere. She is always with her BlackBerry. We are always in contact," he said. "This morgue is the last place I thought of, but, well, she's missing."

Schiavi defended the rail system at a news conference. But as he spoke, riot police faced off against angry passengers in the closed station, where emergency workers spent hours extracting dozens of people trapped in the train's first car. Rescuers had to slice open the roof and set up a pulley system to ease them out one by one.

A labor union official said earlier yesterday the train had appeared to be in good working order.