Évry (AFP)

This is one of the worst railway disasters in France: six years after the accident in Brétigny-sur-Orge that had left seven dead and dozens injured in 2013, the prosecutor's office of Evry Friday called for a trial for homicides and involuntary injuries, against the SNCF and a railway worker.

It is now up to the examining magistrates to decide whether to send them to the criminal court or not.

The railwayman, 24 years old at the time, was at the head of a lane inspection brigade at the time of the derailment in 2013. He was the one who carried out the last check eight days before the disaster.

On July 12, 2013, the train Intercités Paris-Limoges had derailed station Brétigny-sur-Orge in Essonne when a splint - a kind of big clip that keeps two consecutive rails - had rotated, causing the accident.

The result of one of the most serious train accidents in the country in 20 years: three deaths among train passengers, four among those waiting on the platform, and dozens wounded.

The investigation excluded "any fault of the driver or any malicious act", explained the floor in a statement. She showed that the train had derailed because of "maintenance defects", an "insufficient monitoring system" and "failures in the organization of human resources".

"Mistakes" committed by SNCF Mobilités and SNCF Réseau (which succeeded Réseau Ferré de France, the track manager, for whom the prosecution also requested a referral to the court), because of "their inaction or the technical choices or economic they could do ".

The five years of investigation, completed in January, had given rise to a battle of expertise and counter-expertise, with a stake: to determine if the derailment was predictable.

All of those ordered by the courts concluded that the train had derailed because of a poorly maintained piece of track, which had broken up over time.

The SNCF, which has commissioned other expertise on its side, believes that the assembly incriminated gave way abruptly because of a defect in the steel - a hypothesis that would clear customs.

"These referral demands were expected and unsurprisingly in a case of this nature," reacted to the AFP the lawyer of the SNCF, Emmanuel Marsigny. The SNCF, "which was never convinced by the conclusions of the experts (...) has not ceased to try to understand what had happened, therefore we expect to see the indictment and its motivations ".

- "Not enough" -

The public prosecutor's office also estimated that the railway worker, a "local manager" who had been working at the SNCF for a few years and in Brétigny for five months, had put people's lives in danger by performing "only" inspection of the rails. , "contrary to the recommendations and with a level of diligence and attention obviously insufficiently".

Before the investigators, he explained that he did not notice anything unusual. His lawyer Philippe Valent did not wish to communicate before having read the indictment.

The victims and their relatives, who have always asked to "put faces" on officials, regretted that the prosecutor's office only requests the removal of a single natural person. "This is not enough," reacted to AFP Xavier-Philippe Gruwez, lawyer of a dozen victims.

"This line was poorly maintained, everyone knew it, and finally one hat was made too big for her," he added.

Parties have one month to comment.

The SNCF, traumatized by the accident of Brétigny, strengthened its requirements in terms of safety. The subject is the subject of recurring polemics within the group: it was for example invoked by the railway workers who stopped work after the accident between a TER and an exceptional convoy, mid-October in the Ardennes.

Guillaume Pepy, who left the head of the SNCF on November 1, must remain in the group for two months to advise his successor Jean-Pierre Farandou. He will essentially work to defend the group in the Brétigny case and the derailment of the test TGV in 2015 in Alsace (11 dead), according to the management.

© 2019 AFP