All 8 victims in Denmark rail accident identified

Danish police said Friday they had identified the eight victims killed in a train accident earlier this week, all of them Danes and ranging in age from 27 to 60.

The three men and five women were not related to each other and hail from different regions of the country, a police statement said.

The accident occurred early Wednesday when a truck trailer appeared to blow off a cargo train in strong winds and hit a passenger train travelling in the opposite direction on the Great Belt Bridge linking the islands of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, and Funen.

Sixteen others were hurt, but none of them suffered life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the passenger train had slowed down after feeling the strong winds on the bridge, his lawyer Torben Koch told daily Berlingske.

“He was worried and slowed down to around 100-120 kilometres per hour (60-75 miles per hour), according to his own estimate, on a stretch where the speed limit is normally 180 km/h,” he said.

Investigators have yet to determine how and why the truck trailer came loose from the cargo train.