ZURICH - Two trains collided head-on in western Switzerland, killing one of the engine drivers and hospitalizing 26, police said.
It was too early to determine what caused the accident outside the town of Granges-pres-Marnand, Reto Schaerli, a spokesman for the national rail company SBB, said by phone.
The wreck between two trains traveling to and from Lausanne on the same track occurred at 6:46 p.m.
Monday, police for the canton of Vaud said in a statement. The injured passengers were transported to hospitals in the region, police said. The trains had a total of 46 passengers, none of whom were foreigners, it said.
The first news photos from the crash showed the fronts of both trains completely smashed into each other. An unidentified passenger on the train traveling to Lausanne told 20 Minutes, a Swiss news outlet, that the train braked three times before a violent crash sent smashed glass flying through the cars.
The accident is the latest of several fatal train collisions in Europe. A crash in northern Spain after a highspeed train went off the rails Wednesday killed 79 people. On July 12, six people died when a French train smashed into a commuter station outside Paris.
Investigators from the rail service and specialists from the police and the Swiss federal accident investigative unit have opened a probe into the accident, police said. The prosecution service has ordered an autopsy of the driver.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 07/30/2013