PARIS, Aug 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French state rail firm SNCF and three employees involved in a deadly crash during testing of a new high-speed train in 2015 are to stand trial over the accident charged with manslaughter, judicial sources said on Monday.
The train crashed near the eastern city of Strasbourg on Nov 14, 2015, causing 11 deaths and leaving 42 with injuries during a test run to which the families of senior SNCF employees had been invited.
Experts consulted by investigators believe that the train was travelling at 265 kilometres an hour when it took a corner with a speed limit of 176 kmh, leading it to derail a few hundred metres after.
Excessive speed and late braking were found to be the causes, while SNCF admitted that there were seven people in the driver’s wagon instead of the authorised four.
The SNCF, two subsidiaries including Systra, the company responsible for railway tests, as well as three employees are to stand trial for manslaughter caused by “clumsiness, carelessness, negligence or failure to follow safety
procedures,” legal sources said.
“I acknowledge the decision of the investigating magistrates (to order a trial) while I do not share their analysis of the law and the facts,” a lawyer for Systra, Philippe Goossens, said. — NNN-AGENCIES
