Less than two weeks after another fatal rail incident at a level crossing in Poland, a second deadly crash has killed one passenger and left 20 others injured, four of them critically. The collision unfolded just after 11 a.m. local time on Wednesday in the small village of Sokolniki Suche, roughly 100 kilometers south of the country’s capital Warsaw, when a concrete mixer truck struck an intercity passenger train carrying around 120 people, causing multiple carriages to derail.
PKP Intercity, Poland’s state-owned long-distance rail operator, confirmed the casualty figures in an official statement shortly after the incident. Photographs from the crash site show severe structural damage to several train carriages, with twisted metal and debris scattered across the area.
Local authorities have launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash, though early reporting from on-site sources indicates the level crossing was equipped with working traffic signals and barriers. Deputy Infrastructure Minister Piotr Malepszak told reporters that the truck driver, who is among those injured, told first responders he had been blinded by bright sunlight at the time of the collision. Investigators note it is still too early to confirm the full sequence of events that led to the tragedy.
This latest crash comes only one week after a similar near-miss turned fatal incident at a Polish level crossing, when a lorry driver ignored closing barriers and was hit by an oncoming PKP train. Footage of that incident showed the driver making a desperate but failed attempt to reverse out of the path of the speeding train.
In response to the second deadly level crossing incident in as many weeks, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the crash “very serious” and emphasized the urgent need for immediate regulatory reform. Tusk argued that a “radical toughening of the rules” is required to target motorists who repeatedly ignore warning barriers and red traffic signals to force their way across level crossings, a dangerous habit that has contributed to multiple recent tragedies on Poland’s rail network.