Entire canopy on station building in Novi Sad collapses – Accident results in 14 dead and three injured

The canopy on the station building of the rail station in Novi Sad collapsed entirely on Friday, crashing down in front of the entrance to the station that it had covered. Several emergency and rescue service teams immediately arrived to the site, and building machines were also driven to the site to remove the debris so that the dead and the injured would be pulled out. The end result of this tragedy is 14 dead and three injured, announced the minister of the interior, Ivica Dacic. Among the dead, as announced previously, is a six-year-old child.

When it comes to the survivors, after several hours of the rescuers communicating with them, two women were pulled out of the debris, and an eighteen-year-old male was also pulled out and had to have a leg amputated.

According to the citizens who were in the proximity of the accident, the fall of the canopy itself sounded like a bomb going off.

Immediately after the accident, the company Serbian Railways Infrastructure made a statement saying that the canopy which had collapsed at the entrance to the Novi Sad station had not been the subject of the reconstruction within the works on the reconstruction of the station building as part of the project of the construction of the Novi Sad-Subotica fast railroad.

– Within the reconstruction, works on the interior of the station, the roof and the façade above and below the canopy were done – the company pointed out.

Later during the day, the minister of construction, transport and infrastructure of Serbia, Goran Vesic, said the same and pointed out that the building permit confirmed that. He added that the responsibility for the accident would be determined in the coming days.

– As the minister in charge of infrastructure, I will demand for all the circumstances that have led to this accident to be examined in the coming days and I will demand for the responsibility for endangering the safety of the people and passengers in the station building in Novi Sad to be determined, as well as why this canopy was not reconstructed at the time when the majority of the building was when the project was being prepared in 2019 – said Vesic.

While visiting the site of the accident, the prime minister of Serbia, Milos Vucevic, said that “we will insist on finding those who are responsible for the accident” and those who, as he emphasized, had to take care of the condition of the building.

That evening, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said that, as the president, he requested the Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad and the Government of Serbia to have those responsible for what had happened be processed and severely penalized and that he requested both political and criminal responsibility.

– All I know is that, for 60 years, we didn’t reconstruct that canopy. When we were renovating everything, it was the only thing we didn’t renovate, and I don’t know why, but I hope somebody will be able to answer that – Vucic added and said that those who had planned and executed the works were especially guilty.

– Maybe they didn’t carry out the works. Those whose duty was the infrastructure, the rail system, the traffic infrastructure are responsible – said Vucic.

Passengers who regularly use rail transport in Novi Sad point out that, in the zone of the canopy, works had been done during the reconstruction of the station building, and some of them have also uploaded photos which show a different look of the entrance to the station before and after the reconstruction of the station building. The photos show that, in the back and immediately above the old concrete part of the canopy which collapsed, a glass section with additional metal carriers had been built. That additional canopy collapsed along with the concrete one.

The site of the accident is in a part of the city where, throughout the day, a large number of passengers pass through, because, in addition to the rail station, that is also the site of the Intercity Bus Station in Novi Sad, as well as the public transport turn for several lines. The entrance to the rail station from which the canopy collapsed is located precisely on one of the busiest pedestrian routes toward the bus station. It is especially busy at the entrance to the rail station when there are passengers there who are coming from Belgrade to Novi Sad and those who are traveling to the capital city. In such moments, there are often big crowds at the entrance door to the station. In addition to that, below the canopy were seats, on which there were people at any time of the day.

Let us remind that the station in Novi Sad was partially developed when the fast railroad from Belgrade to Novi Sad was put into operation in March 2022, but that not long after that, detailed works on the building started. Let us also remind that, in early July, the competent state and provincial authorities announced that the reconstruction of the rail station in Novi Sad, that is, its central hall with the counters, which had been out of function for a long time, was finally completed. They then visited the renovated station building and said that the rail station in Novi Sad “has been done in line with the European standards, and even more than that.”

Ahead of opening the fast railroad from Belgrade to Novi Sad to traffic, the station building of the rail station in Novi Sad was partially rearranged, when the elevator was installed, connecting the hall with the platforms, and the features for children, the waiting room on the first floor, the façade toward the platforms and the space in front of the station building were developed too. Still, as it would turn out, that was only the first phase of the development of this station building, whose central hall with the counters was entirely closed for passengers in the meantime, and the passengers were redirected to the smaller, lateral hall of the station, where temporary counters and a corridor for the flow of arriving and departing passengers were opened. When the much more serious construction works at the station building, compared to the first phase of the works, started, craftsmen moved into the central hall too.

As the Serbian Railways Infrastructure specified this summer, the works encompassed the completion of the replacement of the marble surfaces on the entire station building, the completion of the insulation works on the slab of the station building, as well as the completion of all the rail track capacities at the Novi Sad station. The second phase of the reconstruction works also encompassed the replacement of all the joinery on the station building, as well as the development of the counter rooms. A gallery was also built in the station vestibule. The reconstruction of the Novi Sad station encompassed works in the technical rooms as well – the Remote Control Center, the rooms for train dispatchers, relay and TC rooms, as well as other technical rooms.

The works were carried out by the consortium of Chinese Railways, within the construction of the Novi Sad-Subotica railroad for 200 kilometers per hour.

Engineer: Reconstruction works inside the station might have caused the accident

The civil engineer Vladimir Tijanic stated for N1 that it was possible that, during the works carried out inside the station building in Novi Sad, some change had occurred in the structure, causing the collapse of the canopy.

– I don’t know the details of what happened exactly and all I can say is what I have seen on social networks and in the media. What can be seen from the footage is that the entire canopy collapsed in front of the station building. What we can say at first sight is that it is what the professionals call “wreckage” and that the entire canopy has collapsed – said the engineer.

He says that several factors could have led to it.

– One factor is the contractor’s error, the other is the planner’s error, but that’s something that should have been noticed at an earlier phase and there should have been a reaction to that – says Tijanic.

Regarding the allegations that works were not done on the canopy, but only inside the building, he says that what might have happened, since the canopy was attached as a console, was that some change had occurred during the works, leading to the weakening and collapse.

Regarding certain statements saying that the citizens had been noticing that there had been cracks on the canopy during the preceding days, he says that, when cracks appear on public-use buildings, people shouldn’t be allowed to stay there, and the contractors and other inspection services were supposed to go on site immediately and determine that problems and changes had occurred and react immediately, without waiting for something like that to happen.

The government pronounced Saturday, November 2, a Day of Mourning in Serbia.

In Novi Sad, a three-day mourning was declared.

D. Aleksic

Infrastruktura Železnice Srbije Beograd

Vladimir Tijanić

Ivica Dačić

Milan Đurić

rail station Novi Sad

consortium Chinese Railways

collapse of canopy on rail station in Novi Sad

accident at rail station in Novi Sad