Whale tail structure catches runaway metro train in Netherlands

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Netherlands

Near the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, the driver of a subway train survived when the front carriage hit the end of an elevated section and was caught by a sculpture of a whale tail.

The train was placed a few meters (yards) above the ground on one of two tail fins called “Fox”.

It caused an uproar there, so much so that the authorities urged tourists to stay away from the scene, adding that the coronavirus restrictions have taken effect.

Even so, about 50 people were still on the scene late Monday morning, and engineers tried to study how to stabilize the wind and then move the train away in strong winds.

“A team of experts is studying how to make it safe and reduce security,” Carly Gorter, a spokesperson for the local security bureau, said in a telephone interview.

Maarten Struijs, the architect who designed the sculpture, told the Dutch broadcaster RTL that he was happy that this might have saved the driver’s life.

He said: “I am surprised that it is so powerful.” “If plastic has been used for 20 years, you would not expect it to support subway cars.”

The company operating the subway line said that when Rotterdam crashed into an accident at the end of the town of Spijkenisse on the southern edge of Rotterdam on Monday morning, the driver was not injured and there were no passengers on the train. This station is the last station on the subway line.