• Witnesses Metro accident in Mexico City: "People screamed and rushed into free fall"

The Mexico City metro accident has highlighted the risks involved in neglecting the maintenance tasks of a public transport service that is used by about six million people every day. One day after the event,

25 deaths and 38 people were hospitalized

. Today the country celebrates the first of three days of national mourning, but not all have observed the mourning with the same solemnity. While at the scene of the accident, relatives and neighbors have erected an altar in memory of the victims, President López Obrador has used his daily conference to accuse the media of "immoral opportunism" and to suggest that, despite the tragedy, Mexicans do not forget to

celebrate today the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Puebla.

"It is a date today that all Mexicans have to remember, even mourning the misfortune of Tláhuac," the president recalled this morning, in a new attempt to

divert attention

to other issues that are of great interest to his project. The opposition has also not hesitated to use the accident for partisan purposes. In an image that is difficult to justify, several leaders of the National Action Party (PAN) approached the doors of the hospitals, where the relatives of the victims were waiting for news of their own, to convince them to join their complaint against the government of López Obrador . With or without those signatures, a photograph was finally taken in front of the scene of the tragedy, proudly displaying the complaint filed.

Both the local and federal governments have shown themselves fully willing to go to the bottom of this matter to define responsibilities and have announced the

hiring of a foreign

and independent company

to carry out the expert opinion.

Line 12 is the most modern and most recently built section of the entire capital metro network.

It was inaugurated in 2012, when the current Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, led the government of Mexico City.

Today all eyes are focused on him and prominent members of his Cabinet, given the

possible negligence

committed during its construction.

Possible negligence

Complaints about the poor condition of the infrastructure of the metro network had intensified since the

earthquakes of 2017

. Hundreds of users had shared photos on social media showing the cracks and flaws, but they were never taken into account. Homero Zavala, representative of a subway workers union, denounced that the accident

"could have been avoided if the workers were really listened to by this administration

.

"

An engineer who has been linked to several projects of the Mexico City metro explains to EL MUNDO, on condition of anonymity, that "what happened in Tlahúac is an endemic problem of the city, no investment is allocated for the maintenance of infrastructures."

According to this engineer who has worked in other areas of the capital metro, "what happened in Tlahúac

seems like a chain error, design, construction and maintenance failure.

Politicians prefer to do a lot of work, rather than allocate investment to periodic inspections or reviews, things that the ordinary citizen does not appreciate. " It also seems difficult to believe that those responsible for the subway had not received prior complaints about the state of the tracks, "since last year it had been detected that the deck was uneven, the drivers had to notice that, it surprises me very much that they did not report it to their superiors, it was probably

ignored to avoid the preventive closure of the section. "

The head of government of the capital has asked for "caution" and not to draw hasty conclusions but, for the moment,

there have been no dismissals

or dismissals of possible officials.

The other side of the tragedy has been experienced at the doors of some thirty hospitals, where the relatives lived awake nights in search of victims pending identification.

One of the last to be located was Brandon, a 12-year-old boy who was traveling with his father, who is seriously injured.

After searching for him for more than 24 hours, the mother and wife of the victims, Marisol, confessed disconsolately to the media that she had plans to celebrate Mother's Day with her son, next May 10, but that

"now I'm going to bury ".

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