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The derailment of a train linking Paris to Limoges on July 12, 2013 had killed seven people in Brétigny-sur-Orge, Essonne. REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes

Six years after the Brétigny-sur-Orge train accident that left seven dead, the Evry public prosecutor's office on Friday (November 22nd) demanded a lawsuit against SNCF and a railway worker.

The prosecutor's office of Évry demands a trial for homicide and involuntary injuries against the SNCF. The investigation excluded " any fault of the driver or any malicious act ," he said in a statement. According to the prosecutor's office, it is " lack of maintenance ", an " insufficient surveillance system " and " failures in the organization of human resources " that would have led to the Brétigny-sur-Orge disaster .

The prosecution is also seeking a trial against a 24-year-old railway worker who was leading a lane inspection brigade at the time of the derailment. It was he who had made the last check, eight days before the tragedy. It is now up to the examining magistrates to decide whether to send them to the criminal court or not.

On July 12, 2013, the Paris-Limoges train had derailed in Brétigny-sur-Orge station when a splint - a kind of big staple that keeps two consecutive rails - had rotated, causing the accident. The accident killed three passengers on the train, four people waiting on the platform, and dozens wounded.

During the five years of the investigation, all the court-ordered appraisals concluded that the train had derailed because of a piece of poorly maintained track that broke up over time. The SNCF estimates that the assembly complained broke suddenly because of a defect in the steel, and therefore that the accident was unpredictable - an assumption that would clear customs.

The investigating judges announced the end of their investigations in early 2019, after five years of investigation and an unexpected rebound: a few days before the closing, a manager of the railway company had been charged, also for homicide and unintentional injuries.

Until then, and despite the repeated demands of families of victims who wanted to " put faces " on this disaster and see " men on the ground " or their hierarchy in court, only two legal persons had been charged with manslaughter: SNCF, and RFF (Réseau Ferré de France), the track manager, now SNCF Réseau, for whom the prosecution has also requested a referral to the court.

(With AFP)