Gelida“There was a very abrupt braking and we all came out half-shot,” recalls David Castelló shortly after the R4 train he was traveling in derailed near Gelida. The accident that took place around nine in the evening has left one fatality and 36 affected, 5 of which are seriously injured. The first hypotheses indicate that a retaining wall has fallen on the track and the train traveling towards Manresa has hit it between Sant Sadurní and Gelida stations.
David was returning home from work and was traveling in the third car of the damaged train. In fact, his stop was just next. “I must have been in the third carriage and there was a woman who was traveling straight, and I have seen that she has had a worse stop,” he explains. He explains how after the collision they managed to open the doors of the carriage “so that air could enter” and that then everything was left in the dark. “We put our heads out of the doors and saw that a train was coming in the opposite direction. Some of us jumped, we started to signal and in the end it stopped,” Castelló narrates. “We arrived in front of the train, up to the first carriage and we could hear cries for help.”
“It was as if the whole floor of the first carriage had disappeared, as if it was suspended in the air and the people were there in the middle,” he describes of what he saw when he reached the front of the convoy. “It was very impressive to get to the first part of the train and see that there was no train and people were screaming,” he admits. He also admits that at the time he got “stuck” and it was difficult for him to help, although he did give his jacket to one of the passengers who was in the worst condition.
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“Eternal” wait
Now, three hours after the accident, David admits that it is difficult for him to calculate the time that has passed between noticing the collision and seeing help arrive. “Access was super complicated. I don’t know if 20 minutes or half an hour have passed, I don’t know… But the wait was eternal until we saw the Fire, Police and emergency services coming,” he narrates.
Although David has escaped unharmed from the collision, he has been transferred to an area of the Torelló Caves in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia where a field hospital has been set up. “They behaved superbly, superbly”, he says.
