The front carriage of an elevated metro train slammed past the end of a railway in the Netherlands on Monday, only avoiding a 32-foot drop onto the ground after it became nestled atop an art sculpture featuring the tail fin of a whale, according to reports. The driver of the train was not injured, and there were no passengers on board when it plowed through stop barriers at the end of the station in the town of Spijkenisse. The incident occurred near the port city of Rotterdam, and a spokeswoman for the local security authority told the AP that a team of experts was working to get it down safely.
Imagine being in drivers seat ? Fortunately no passengers on board #spijkenisse pic.twitter.com/4tUPVNfCvQ
— anna holligan ? (@annaholligan) November 2, 2020
“It’s tricky,” Carly Gorter told the outlet of removing the carriage, which remained suspended above a bike lane on top of the tail fins. Coincidentally enough, the sculpture, made of reinforced polyester and put up in 2002, is called “Saved by the Whale’s Tail,”. “I’m surprised it’s so strong,” Maarten Struijs, the architect who designed the sculpture, reportedly told Dutch broadcaster RTL. “If the plastic has been standing for 20 years, you don’t expect it to hold a metro carriage. Of course it does look rather poetic,” Struijs reportedly added. “But it’s really lucky that the tail can bear the weight of the train.” An investigation into how the incident occurred is ongoing.
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