The section of track where a passenger and freight train collided on Saturday, injuring 25 people, was reopened to traffic on Monday evening, but with a speed restriction.
On Monday, August 10, 2026, at exactly 9 p.m., rail traffic was restored on the section between Gradec and Sveti Ivan Žabno, as confirmed by HŽ Infrastruktura. Trains are running again, but with a temporary speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour, a precautionary measure following the serious accident.
The line had been out of service since Saturday at 10:05 a.m., when a head-on collision occurred between a passenger and a freight train near Škrinjar. The passenger train, operated by a 61-year-old driver, was heading toward Sveti Ivan Žabno, while a freight train from HŽ Cargo, with a 20-year-old driver at the controls, was coming from the opposite direction.
A total of 25 people were injured in the accident, including both train drivers and a 43-year-old conductor. All were taken to medical facilities, and according to the latest information, no one is in life-threatening condition.
At the scene, an investigation was conducted by the deputy of the Bjelovar Municipal State Attorney's Office, with assistance from the police and investigators from the Agency for the Investigation of Accidents in Air, Maritime, and Rail Traffic. The official cause of the collision has not yet been determined, but unofficial information has emerged about a possible error by the freight train.
Mario Grbešić, president of the Croatian Train Workers' Union, stated that, according to unofficial information, the freight train did not stop at the "STOP" signal. State Secretary Žarko Tušek confirmed that the automatic train stop system, which should have automatically halted the train in such a situation, did not function. Why this happened is still under investigation.
Just over a day after the collision, on Sunday at 1:06 p.m., another serious incident occurred. A freight train from HŽ Cargo passed through a red signal at Škrljevo station and failed to stop to await a crossing with a passenger train carrying around 45 people. This time, the automatic train stop system activated and stopped the train, and HŽ Infrastruktura subsequently cut the power. A collision was avoided, and no one was injured. The driver was removed from duty, and HŽ Cargo described the passing of the "STOP" signal as one of the most serious safety breaches.
Due to two serious incidents in less than 30 hours, at the request of Minister Oleg Butković, an extraordinary inspection has been launched into HŽ Cargo, HŽ Passenger Transport, and HŽ Infrastruktura.
The freight train was removed from the accident site earlier, but the extraction of the passenger train was considerably more complex. It was an electric battery train that was severely damaged in the collision and was partially off the tracks, making access difficult. As Nenad Medić from Končar - Electric Vehicles said, one car was practically destroyed, and just building and equipping a new body would take at least six months.
Work to remove the train lasted from Sunday, and during Monday, the train was slowly towed toward Sveti Ivan Žabno. After that, the damaged infrastructure on the section of track beneath the passenger train was repaired. Although HŽ Infrastruktura had earlier announced that traffic might not be restored until Tuesday, the work was completed earlier, and the line was opened on Monday evening.
