At 13:13 CET (12:13 UTC), a 3-car passenger train operated by a single Class 80 electric multiple unit No.326 was derailed shortly after leaving Leuven.

[1] It was initially thought that the victim was not on board the train, but this theory was later discounted and it was confirmed that he was a passenger.

[4] Following the accident, trains between Brussels and Liège were cancelled, although they were able to run between Leuven and Ottignies.

[1][5] The police investigation revealed excessive speed through a set of points to be the cause of the derailment.

[7] According to the Railway Accident and Incident Investigation Unit final report,[8] the driver was distracted and accelerated too soon and the train protection system (TBL1++) was not designed to monitor the speed and apply emergency braking in this particular sequence of events (Green Yellow Horizontal signal).