The town of Port-Sainte-Foy-et-Ponchapt commemorates this Thursday, September 8 a very sad anniversary. That of the biggest disaster in the last thirty years in the Dordogne department, but also the most serious rail disaster to have occurred at a level crossing in France.
13 dead and 40 injured in blast
25 years ago to the day, on September 8, 1997, around 11:45 a.m., the red lights flashed and the barriers at the Noble level crossing had already been lowered to announce the passage of the Bordeaux-Bergerac-Sarlat railcar. Despite this, the driver of a tank truck driving on departmental 936 does not stop. He crosses the path. Launched at more than 120 km/h, the train which carries 95 people cannot avoid it. The shock exploded the 30,000 liters of hydrocarbon contained in the tank, killing the train driver and 12 passengers. The explosion left more than forty injured, some seriously burned.
“Given the magnitude of the task, I quickly took stock with the head of the Sainte-Foy van”, remembers Didier Cugerone. A retired firefighter today, he was at the time group leader at the rescue center of Bergerac. He was one of the first rescuers to arrive on the scene: “There had been so many calls that reinforcements had already been hired. There was a surge of solidarity from everyone, the manager of the shopping center had made available all his garden furniture, his parasols, pallets for crossing the stream, paramedics returning from intervention also stopped, it helped us a lot”.
“We are indelibly associated with this accident”
On the day of the accident, the current mayor of Port-Sainte-Foy Jacques Reix was then secretary general of the town hall. He finds himself very quickly on the scene of the drama, and for good reason, the mayor at the time and several deputies were on the move in Alsace. He had to take over: “The horror, the amazement, the irreparable. The crisis cell lasted three, four days, we were waiting for the identification of the bodies. I don’t like talking about that too much, for me it’s is still yesterday, it’s unforgettable. Every time there is an accident in France, automatically, the TVs and radios call Port-Sainte-Foy. We are indelibly associated with this accident”.
The firefighters who intervened that day also benefited for the first time at the time in the Dordogne from a psychological support : “There was one for the victims, and one for the firefighters. The first time, we say to ourselves that we don’t need it”. A disaster so significant that it has since been part of the training of officers: “It is a concrete case that firefighters officers have to solve during their training”.
The crossing was one of the most dangerous in the country
Four and a half years after the disaster, the driver’s trial before the Bergerac court does not identify the exact causes of the tragedy. Discomfort, inattention, dazzle, the driver of the truck who has become a quadriplegic does not provide an explanation. The only certainty is that the Noble level crossing was identified as being one of the most dangerous in France. More than 70 incidents and three accidents had occurred there in the twelve years preceding the tragedy.
The SNCF was ordered to pay one euro in damages, while the driver’s ex-employer was ordered to pay 404,000 euros to the civil parties. In 2021, a road bridge that replaces this level crossing. This year, a quarter of a century later, a ceremony is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. in the presence of the families in front of the stele which commemorates the tragedy, avenue de Bordeaux.