photo: Chris Ogilvie on X (Twitter)/Train collision in Croatia, August 2026
Twenty-five people were injured when an HŽ Cargo freight train collided with a passenger train in Croatia on 8 August. Investigators have not yet established the cause, but Croatian officials have confirmed that the automatic train protection system failed to stop the freight train as it was supposed to.
The accident happened at around 10:00 on line L214 between Sveti Ivan Žabno and Gradec, at kilometre 9+350. Croatia’s Accident Investigation Agency, AIN, identified the trains as HŽ Cargo freight service 81330 and HŽ Putnički prijevoz passenger service 931 and opened an independent safety investigation.
Later reports put the number of injured at 25, including both drivers and the passenger train’s conductor. Six people were seriously injured, although none were reported to be in life-threatening condition.
A Reported Stop-Signal Overrun Is the Main Lead
There is still no official finding that a signal passed at danger, or SPAD, caused the collision. However, Mario Grbešić, president of the Croatian railway traffic workers’ union, told HRT that preliminary unofficial information shows that the freight train passed a stop signal showing at Sveti Ivan Žabno before the collision. Transport Minister Oleg Butković declined to confirm that version and said investigators still needed to establish the cause.
A day later, State Secretary Žarko Tušek told HRT that the Croatian "autostop" train-protection system should automatically stop a train after it passes a red signal, but said that this did not happen in the Križevci accident. He also said that several investigations were still under way. If the reported SPAD is confirmed, identifying a driver error will not be enough. Train protection exists precisely because railway safety cannot depend on a driver never making a mistake.
L214 Is Equipped With INDUSI I60, Not ETCS
Croatia’s 2025 national implementation plan provides a useful answer to one of the main technical questions.
The document identifies INDUSI I60 as Croatia’s Class B automatic train-protection system. It specifically lists the entire 12.52-km Gradec–Sveti Ivan Žabno line, L214, as being equipped with INDUSI I60 and records the system as operational. Croatian rules also require traction vehicles operating on lines without ETCS to carry compatible onboard automatic train-protection equipment, meaning this was not a section with no train-protection equipment.
It was also not an ETCS-protected railway. The same national plan says serious ERTMS deployment across Croatia has only begun on a small number of routes. L214 is listed under the older national INDUSI system, not among the ETCS-equipped sections.
Tušek said that trackside equipment works with the onboard autostop device and should stop a train when it passes a stop signal. He also confirmed that a driver can isolate the system, but only under tightly defined procedures, and there is currently no public evidence that the driver of train 81330 had done so.
That leaves several possibilities for investigators to examine. They need to establish whether the onboard equipment was active, whether the relevant trackside equipment worked correctly, whether any safety function had been isolated and what the locomotive recorder shows.
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One Day Later, Autostop Did Stop Another HŽ Cargo Train
On 9 August, less than 30 hours after the Križevci collision, another HŽ Cargo freight train passed a red signal at Škrljevo on the Zagreb–Rijeka route. It had been expected to stop and wait for a passenger train approaching from Zagreb. This time, according to HŽ Infrastruktura and Tušek, the autostop system intervened and stopped the freight train. Infrastructure staff then cut traction power on the electrified section as an additional precaution.
The two events are not technically identical. L214 is non-electrified, while the Škrljevo incident happened on an electrified route. The signalling layout and precise equipment configuration may also differ. But Croatia’s national implementation plan lists INDUSI I60 as operational on both L214 and the Zagreb–Rijeka route.
The Crash Happened on One of Croatia’s Newest Lines
Gradec–Sveti Ivan Žabno is not an inherited nineteenth-century railway waiting for complete reconstruction. HŽ Infrastruktura opened the 12.2-km line in December 2019 as Croatia’s first newly built railway in 52 years. It was designed for speeds of up to 120 km/h and the project included new signalling, interlocking and telecommunications equipment.
The passenger train was also new. The vehicle involved was HŽPP’s Croatian-built battery-electric multiple unit used on the Zagreb–Bjelovar route. KONČAR built the train, which entered passenger service in May 2025. It runs from Zagreb to Gradec under the overhead line and then switches to battery power towards Bjelovar. On non-electrified infrastructure, it can run at up to 120 km/h.
Butković said after the crash that he did not believe the condition of the newly built railway or the passenger train was responsible. The independent AIN investigation has not yet reached such a conclusion, but it's clear a new track and a modern passenger train do not by themselves prevent conflicting train movements. That task depends on signalling, operating rules and the protection systems that sit between human error and an accident.