Sculpture that saves lives: in Rotterdam statue stops jump into the void of derailed train

Art may not save the world, but at the moment it can claim to have saved a life: it happens in Rotterdam, where a sculpture depicting a whale, by architect Maarten Struijs, saved a train that had derailed from the tracks and was about to make a very dangerous jump into the void. The incident occurred yesterday at about 12:30 p.m. at one of Rotterdam’s metro terminals, De Akkers station, where the train, instead of stopping, continued on its way, and would have fallen into the void (the station is in fact elevated) had it not been for the whale blocking it, ten meters above the ground. The train driver was thus able to pull himself to safety.

Fortunately, there were no consequences for the train driver: only damage to the train (which had no passengers at the time, RET, the city’s transportation company, points out). The company has launched investigations to learn the dynamics of the accident. Astonishment also from Maarten Struijs, who told CNN “I am surprised, I did not expect this. I can’t wait to know the results of the investigation. I could never have even imagined it.” The whale is plastic and was made in 2001, so it was not necessarily expected to withstand the impact. In fact: it doesn’t even appear to have been damaged. The whale also has a special history: it was in fact installed as compensation, strongly demanded by the citizens of Rotterdam, for the loss of a portion of public parkland on which De Akkers station had been built.

By contrast, the engineer who oversaw the technical design of the tails, Peter Globevnik of Jec Composites Group, is not surprised: “we knew that the tail has great lift against the wind, which was a major engineering challenge.” Indeed, the whale was designed to withstand the strong winds that typically blow over the Dutch city.

Pictured: the train and the whale. Photo Jec Composites.

Sculpture that saves lives: in Rotterdam statue stops jump into the void of derailed train

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