France: the trial of the drama of Brétigny-sur-Orge opens
On July 12, 2013, a train linking Paris to Limoges derailed in Brétigny-sur-Orge station, in the Paris region, killing seven people and injuring hundreds.
REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The trial of the Brétigny rail disaster opens this Monday, April 25 in Essonne, eight years after the tragedy.
On July 12, 2013, a train linking Paris to Limoges derailed in this small station in the Paris region, killing seven people and injuring hundreds.
For eight weeks, the SNCF and SNCF network, as well as a young executive of the company, must answer for manslaughter and involuntary injuries before the court of Évry.
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When the Intercités 3657 train derails as it passes at 137 km/h in
Brétigny-sur-Orge station
with 385 people on board, we are in full rush hour on a Friday departure on vacation.
One of the cars lay down on its side, another got in the way and mowed down the travelers who were waiting on the RER C platform. In total, seven people were killed and hundreds were injured or traumatized by the tragedy.
Eight years later, 144 civil parties want to "
understand why and what are each person's responsibilities
", confides the president of the association of victims of the disaster, Thierry Gomes.
He himself lost his parents that day.
SNCF disputes the experts' report
The material cause of the accident was established by the investigation with the tilting of a splice, a metal rod which connects two rails between them.
The bolts that held it broke one after another over several weeks.
The president of the SNCF at the time of the facts, Guillaume Pépy, recognized the responsibility of the company in the accident, but the latter disputed since the
report of the experts mandated
by the justice which concluded to a lack of maintenance.
Not enough to reassure the civil parties about the outcome of a trial, where only the railway worker who carried out the last inspection a week earlier is directly implicated.
Victims are waiting to be told how predictable the disaster was and who was to blame
Gérard Chemla, the victims' lawyer
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