Train drivers across Belgium went on strike one day after 18 people were killed in a devastating train crash on the outskirts of Brussels.  

 Listen to Vanessa Mock discussing the crash investigation

The strikers said the crash had confirmed their fears over the poor safety equipment on some Belgian trains, which may have been partly to blame for Monday’s head-on collision between two trains in Buizingen to the south-west of Brussels.

“There have been accidents before,” said Lupo de Groot, an engine driver from Leuven who was among the strikers. “And if it carries on like this, there’ll be more accidents of this kind.”  Train traffic across Wallonia in southern Belgium was suspended for a second day, as well as all Eurostar and Thalys services.

Investigators and European Union experts sealed off the entire area surrounding the grisly wreckage, as they searched for more bodies and clues into the cause of the accident. At least 15 men and three women died and over 160 others were injured in the crash during the morning rush hour. But prosecutors refused to confirm reports that one of the train drivers drove through a red light and that the trains were not equipped with new safety equipment that should have automatically stopped the engine.

It takes time
A spokesman for the Belgian National Rail Services (SNCB) admitted that not all trains were equipped with the system, which was introduced after another crash in 2001. “An overhaul like this takes time and does not happen overnight,” he said. “There are procedures to follow.”

Investigators said it could take weeks to analyse the two engines' black boxes. They also hope to speak to the sole surviving driver, who is currently severely injured.
 
“The black boxes will show the speed, the route and whether the train driver failed to respect a signal or missed a light,” said Royal Prosecutor Bruno Bulthé. “But everything is open at this stage, nothing is clear.” Mr Bulthé added that it was possible that more bodies would be found under the wreckage.

Miraculous escape
In what appeared to be a near-miraculous escape, it emerged that the train driver who is thought to have gone through the red light survived the accident by leaping out of his cabin moments before the crash.

Luccian Spiessens, a former station-master at Buizingen, witnessed the escape as he sat in the first train carriage. “It was astounding. The driver sent out an SOS signal and then tried to make an emergency brake. He jumped out of the engine cabin just before the crash,” he told the Belga, the Belgian press agency.