Several people have been killed or hurt travelling on the São Paulo subway in recent years amid calls for more safety features to be introduced to the underground line
A man who got trapped in the doors of an underground train has spoken of the moment he felt his bones break as he was dragged along a platform.
Police rushed to the scene at the São Paulo subway on Sunday where Lourivaldo Ferreira Nepomuceno , 35, died after being caught between the train and the security door. The incident relaunched the debate of safety on the underground system in Brazil, where there have been 15 similar incidents in the last four years. Jutaí Gonzalez, who survived being caught in the doors of the Brazilian subway system with a number of broken bones, has spoken of his horror experience.
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He told globo : “It was my leg that I felt the pain of it breaking. I turned around, it was crushing me. I thought my ribs were going to come out. I broke almost all of the ribs on this side.
“I thought I was practically dying, because I couldn’t breathe and my heartbeat was very weak. I couldn’t even call for help, because I didn’t have the strength to speak.
“It was a very frustrating week, because, unfortunately, I saw that another person went through this. He just wanted to bring home the bread, like me.”
Experts have demanded the installation of sensors used in the United Kingdom, France, Singapore and South Korea. In a move to halt the number of accidents the Metro has vowed to install protection bars to improve safety.
President Júlio Castiglioni said: “We share some responsibility. These are tough days for us, but they don’t compare to the pain the family is going through. What I can say is we are very sad but aware we have a mission to make our performance better than it was.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a civic inquiry into the accidents. The president of the Association of Metro Engineers and Architects, Luis Guilherme Kolle said: “You have a situation where you have civil liability, you have criminal liability. So, it is important to know so that, mainly, the mistake is not repeated.”
In 2023 a woman was cut in half in a freak accident when she fell out of a bus and got hit by a train. Julia de Albuquerque Violato was in a bus that ended up on the train tracks as an approaching freight train careened towards it.
Julia was thrown from the bus and landed on the train tracks, where she was cut in half by the oncoming train. Alongside her tragic death, five people were injured.