Iran Railway Minister Resigns After Deadly Train Collision Kills 49 People

Iran Train Collision

Mohsen Poor-Seyed Aghaie, the head of Iran’s state-owned railway system stepped down after a fatal collision between two passenger trains in the north-central province of Semnan on November 25, 2016. Aghaie appeared on state television on Saturday night and apologised to his countrymen for the incident.

At least 103 people were injured, and 49 killed when two Iranian passenger trains collided near Shahroud, 250 miles east of Tehran. It is being said that the train entering the Haft-Khan station on the outskirts of Shahroud, Iran collided with another waiting train.

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, Aghaie blamed wrong decisions and said that there was an error in the management section of the railways. Expressing his sympathy to the survivors and the bereaved families, he further said that the managers are obliged to take responsibility for the developments and therefore, he is officially resigning as reported by PressTV.

His resignation was accepted by the Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi.

The investigation into the collision is underway, and the head of the Railway’s Command and Control Center, the chairman of the track control centre and the individual in charge of that shift were arrested on Saturday.