Three people died when they were hit by a train at Södra station in Örebro last week.
Photo: SVEN LINDWALL
It happened at the same time and place as when Abdikarin Abdi Ali was killed by a freight train in 2017.
Photo: RICHARD STRÖM
Three people were killed by a freight train at the station in Örebro on Wednesday evening last week.
One of the dead was 13-year-old Youssef.
He and two others – a woman in her 20s and a man in her 25s – crossed the track at Södra station in Örebro. Then a freight train came at full speed.
– Something must be done about the railway, his father tells Expressen.
After last week’s fatal accident, sisters Amal Abdi Ali, 41, and Monira Said, 23, have been thrown six years back in time – when their 30-year-old brother Abdikarin Abdi Ali died at the exact same place and time.
– It’s like opening a wound again. He was very generous, caring and had a big heart, says his older sister Amal Abdi Ali and continues:
– At the same time, I feel anger and frustration that the place has not been made safer after his accident.
Abdikarin Abdi Ali died when he was hit by a freight train at Södra station in Örebro in 2017.
Photo: Private
It was Friday evening, December 1, 2017, that Abdikarin Abdi Ali was on his way to meet a friend at Olof Palme square in Örebro. When he crossed the railway crossing at Södra station it was just after eleven o’clock.
He was wearing headphones, looking at his phone and had his hood up when a freight train hit him.
The police investigation concluded that there was nothing wrong with the sound signals and the train driver testified that it was not suicide or that he was pushed.
It was a pure accident.
His little sister Monira, who was 17 at the time, remembers the moment the police knocked on the family’s door with a death notice.
It was a sunny Saturday morning and her mother was frying pancakes.
– Mother came to the door from the kitchen, she didn’t even put on her veil. When she saw the police she immediately exclaimed: Is it Abdikarin? I don’t know how she could know that, maybe it’s a mother’s intuition, says Monira Said.
She continues:
– Even though we were 13 years apart, he was one of my closest siblings. Even when he had moved away from home, he took me out for walks and went with me to buy sweets.
Abdikarin Abdi Ali and his little sister Monira Said.
Photo: Private
Although the police strongly advised against doing so, Amal Abdi Ali and her mother wanted to see his body.
It was badly chewed by the high speed of the freight train.
– We didn’t get to see his face, but we got to see a little, and I will carry that with me for the rest of my life. But it was important for it to sink in that he is gone, says Amal Abdi Ali.
Since the accident, the sisters have not passed the railway crossing at Södra station. They prefer to take other paths.
“After the accident I was annoyed, why wasn’t my brother more careful? But now I got food for thought, and realize that it is the station that is wrong,” says Monira Said.
Photo: Private
“We feel the same pain that the relatives now feel,” says Amal Abdi Ali after the fatal accident last week.
Photo: Private
They are both critical that the rail crossing has not been made safer in the six years that have passed.
– The footbridge over the track area that was built after the accident felt like a panic solution. If you’re carrying a heavy bag, have a pram or are disabled, it’s easier to just walk across the track, says Monira Said.
Her older sister Amal Abdi Ali fills in:
– Does Södra station even need to exist? If it cannot be made safer, it should be removed. This must not happen again.
Södra station in Örebro.
Photo: SVEN LINDWALL
READ MORE: Youssef, 13, died at the train station in ÖrebroREAD MORE: The police’s focus after the fatal accident at the train track in ÖrebroREAD MORE: Ronny’s friend died in the accident on the track: “Was incredibly nice”