A video of a train accident has recently gone viral on social media with a false claim that it shows the aftermath of a collision between a Vande Bharat train and a train engine in India.
BOOM found that the video shows a train accident that occurred in Chile in June this year. The train accident took place when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Chile's San Bernardo area.
Several people have shared the video from their social media accounts amid reports of multiple train accidents, including the derailment of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express in Uttar Pradesh and the Kanchanjunga Express incident in West Bengal. These have raised serious concerns about passenger safety in Indian railways. Last year, Odisha's Balasore witnessed a devastating triple train accident that claimed over 250 lives, raising questions about the implementation of the 'Kavach' anti-collision system.
The Hindi caption with the video translates to, "Vande Bharat mounted on top of the engine".
(Original Text in Hindi: वंदे भारत चढ़ी इंजन के ऊपर)
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the viral video and came across a post by CNN Chile's official Instagram page carrying similar visuals of a train accident.
The post from June 20, 2024, stated in Spanish that the accident took place in Chile between a freight train and a passenger train leaving two people dead and nine injured.
Click here to view the post.
We also found a report published by international news agency Reuters about the incident. On June 21, 2024, Reuters reported that the accident happened when a northbound Fepasa train carrying about 1,346 metric tons of copper collided with a EFE train in Chile's San Bernardo area.
The report states, "Initial findings indicated that the passenger train was conducting speed maneuvers when it collided with the Fepasa train, Local prosecutor Pedro Aravena said at a news conference. The train undergoing the test run was not informed of another cargo train approaching from the south, he noted."
Associated Press also published video reports about the train accident on their official YouTube channel. Furthermore, the news agency did a live streaming of the rescue operation on June 20, 2024.
We then compared the visuals in the viral video with the live stream of the rescue operation aired by the Associated Press. The comparison showed us that the viral video shows trains which collided in Chile but not India.