Congo says train crash driver was drunk, speeding

BRAZZAVILLE, June 24 (Reuters) - A train derailment in Congo Republic which killed dozens and injured hundreds was the result of speeding by its drunk driver, the transport minister said on Thursday, rejecting suggestions the track was faulty.

Isidore Mvouba also lowered the death toll from Monday's crash to 55 from the 76 announced previously by state media after part of the train plunged into a ravine between the coastal town of Pointe-Noire and the capital Brazzaville.

"The driver was in a state of inebriety and the accident was due to excessive speed, according to results of the preliminary inquiry," Mvouba told a news conference in Brazzaville.

"At the scene of the accident the track is in good order and the locomotive was also functioning properly," he added. The government initially said 48 people died. About 700 were wounded.

A lack of roads linking the main towns has made the train line a favoured means of transport for Congolese, and carriages are often overcrowded. At least 50 people were killed on the same line in 2001, many of them burned to death, when two trains collided at Mvougounti about 75 km (45 miles) east of Pointe-Noire.

In 1991, about 100 people died when a passenger train slammed into a freight train, also at Mvougounti. (Reporting by Christian Tsoumou; writing by Mark John; Editing by Matthew Jones)