Woman dies from injuries in Mexico train derailment bringing death toll to 14

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A woman died Thursday as a result of injuries sustained in last weekend’s derailment of a passenger train in southern Mexico, increasing the accident’s death toll to 14, authorities said.

Mexico’s Navy, which operates the train, said via the social platform X that the 73-year-old woman had been receiving treatment as a result of Sunday’s derailment of the Interoceanic Train, which connects the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. The Navy did not provide specifics about her injuries or say where she was being treated.

There were 250 people on board when the train went off the rails as it passed a curve near the town of Nizanda in Oaxaca. More than 100 people were injured.

Images from the scene had showed train cars that had fallen off the side of a steep hill into dense jungle below as other cars lay toppled on their side.

In 2023, Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated the train line as part of a government push to expand the railway and connectivity in rural swaths of Mexico.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that the cause of the crash was under investigation, but officials were already looking for ways to improve the train line’s safety. At that point, 36 people remained hospitalized.