A train rams a group of workers on the tracks of an Italian station, killing 5 of them

ROME – A decommissioned train traveling at full speed collided with a group of workers carrying out nightly track maintenance in northern Rome. Italy on Thursday, killing five of them, authorities said.

The accident occurred shortly after midnight at a station in Brandizzo, a town in the Italian region of Piedmont. Piedmont Governor Alberto Cirio provided the death toll and said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Brandizzo mayor Paolo Bodoni said there were indications that the train crew did not know there were workers on the tracks, reported La Stampa, a newspaper in Piedmont’s main city of Turin.

State radio initially said authorities had estimated the train was moving at about 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph). But a preliminary investigation by railway police later lowered the estimated speed to about 100 kilometers per hour (about 62 mph), the Corriere della Sera newspaper said.

The train consisted of a motor car and 11 empty passenger cars it was carrying, the Corriere della Sera reported.

“Surely there was a human error,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said.

“The first information that came to me refers to a lack of communication between the (work) team and who should have signaled the passage of the train, but we need to see what really happened,” Bodoni said.

Two workers who avoided being hit were being treated for shock at a hospital, La Stampa said.

Several unions representing train maintenance workers have vowed to go on strike to protest the accident and commemorate the victims, Italian media said.