A bus driver gambled and tried to rush across railroad tracks late Tuesday despite a barrier, bells and flashing lights, setting off a chain-reaction collision with two trains that killed 11 people and injured hundreds in Argentina's capital.

The shocking accident, captured on video, came as little surprise to many in Buenos Aires, where 440 people and 165 vehicles were hit by trains last year, causing a total of 269 deaths.

In the latest accident, the bus got halfway across the first track before an oncoming passenger train crushed it against a concrete station platform. The collision forced the train's first two cars off the rails and into another locomotive that was leaving the station in the other direction.

The bus driver was among those killed, and 212 were injured, including about 20 in critical condition, said Alberto Crescenti, director-general of Argentina's emergency medical system. Nine people died at the scene, police said, and two in hospitals.

The engineer in the train that hit the bus was trapped in the crumpled metal, and rescuers had to break his leg to get him out. He also broke a hip and his chest was crushed, though he is expected to survive, union leader Omar Maturano said. The other train's engineer sustained a foot injury.

Maturano blamed "how we are as Argentines, that we immediately lift the barriers and cross despite flashing warning signals."

Emergency officials were still trying to extricate bodies from under the wreckage hours after the crash.

The collision happened at 6:15 a.m. during morning rush hour in the densely populated Flores neighborhood, when many parents use public transportation to take their children to school. Children were among the injured, according to Argentine Transportation Secretary J.P. Schiavi.

There are hundreds of street-level train crossings in the Argentine capital, and their danger increases at rush hour, particularly next to stations, where trains can arrive every four minutes - so frequently that the crossing barriers remain down most of the time.