This is the trial of one of the worst rail disasters in France. The SNCF and a railway worker are tried before the criminal court of Evry (Essonne), from Monday April 25 and until June 17, for “involuntary homicides” and “involuntary injuries”, almost nine years after the accident from Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne). Seven people died and 428 were injured in the summer of 2013 during this derailment. Franceinfo returns to the issues of this large-scale trial.
What happened ?
On July 12, 2013, at 4:53 p.m., Intercités train number 3657, bound for Limoges, left Paris-Austerlitz station with 385 passengers on board. Arrival in Haute-Vienne is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. But at 5:11 p.m., the train derailed at Brétigny-sur-Orge station. However, he had to cross this very busy railway junction without stopping. The shock occurs at 137 km / h, a regulatory speed at this location, where it is limited to 150 km / h. The locomotive and the first cars pass. Then the convoy separates. The fourth car lies down on the track. The sixth mow, on its left, platform number 3.
The human toll is heavy. Six people, aged 19 to 82, died instantly: two train passengers and four people who were waiting for the RER C on the platform. A seventh person succumbed to his injuries in hospital a few days later. More than 400 people were also injured, some very seriously.
Why do we talk a lot about a splint in this case?
This is the piece at the heart of the file. The splice is a heavy metal bar, made of steel, which makes it possible to join together two consecutive rails thanks to bolts. It works like a kind of big staple. Of the four bolts that were used to hold the splint at the time of the tragedy, two had broken and a third was missing.
Only the fourth bolt was in place. It served as a pivot in the 180 degree rotation of the splint, admit all experts contacted. It was this rotation that derailed the wheels of the train at car 4. The splint “came to lodge in the heart of the rail device, serving as a kind of springboard for the wheel of the wagon which arrived on this equipment”explained on franceinfo, a few days after the accident, the director of the Réseau ferré de France (RFF) at the time, Jacques Rapoport.
What does justice reproach the SNCF for?
SNCF and SNCF Réseau, which succeeded RFF, the track manager, are being prosecuted for having committed, during the years preceding the disaster, numerous “faults”, “by choice or inaction having led to the absence of renewal of the switch parts”. The two investigating magistrates believe that “organs or representatives” of the SNCF were “failures in the organization, control and performance of maintenance operations” in the Brétigny-sur-Orge sector.
In their overwhelming order for referral to the criminal court, the judges write it in black and white: “numerous budgetary and productivity constraints limiting staff and time resources” have contributed to the decline in the quality of track maintenance, including the SNCF is responsible. Control sheets have been lost or found incomplete, including by the investigators. Before the derailment, SNCF agents could tighten or replace bolts without mentioning it in their report.
The magistrates denounce both a “lack of rigor” agents and the inadequacy of their supervision and training. They thus underline the imprudence and the “neglect” from the “different levels of decision-making within the SNCF”. They also notice “the insufficiency of controls on the spot”.
“Control deficiencies have an indirect but definite causal link with the derailment.“
The investigating judgesin their dismissal order
In addition, according to legal experts, it would have been desirable to limit the speed to 100 km / h in the Brétigny-sur-Orge area. Especially since the increased circulation of trains in this sector accentuates the network aging. TAll the expert reports concluded that the train had derailed because of a poorly maintained piece of track, which had come apart over time. However, the SNCF could not “ignore the risks involved”according to the investigating magistrates, who regret, pelsewhere, “the encountered difficulties” for “collect” with the company “essential documents” to their investigations.
How does the company defend itself?
If the SNCF recognizes the dilapidation of the network at this location, it dismisses any impact on passenger safety. During interrogations, representatives of SNCF Réseau claimed that a project aimed at relieving traffic congestion in Brétigny-sur-Orge had been launched, but that it had not yet been formally approved.
The SNCF also believes that the offending metal assembly gave way suddenly because of a defect in the steel, and not because of wear. The accident was unpredictable and never happened again, argues the company, which claims to have always sought to understand the reasons. To accredit this hypothesis which would clear it, the SNCF called on experts on its side. Because the conclusions of the legal experts in the file have never convinced her. This battle is expected to continue during the trial proceedings.
In the meantime, the SNCF, contacted by franceinfo, does not wish to make any comment. She reserves her statements at the hearing, out of respect for the court, the civil parties and the victims. It recalls, however, that it has already compensated, so far, pmore than 280 direct and indirect victims for a total amount of 12 million euros. As part of the trial, the group risks a fine of 225,000 euros.
What do we know about the only railway worker on trial?
Only one natural person is sent back to court: the railway worker who carried out the last track check, eight days before the tragedy. Then 24 years old, he was a local director. IHe is accused of having “committed a serious fault which exposed others to a risk of a particular gravity which he could not ignore”, in particular by carrying out the last track inspection alone on July 4, 2013, “under conditions that do not comply with the recommendations and with a manifestly insufficient level of diligence and attention”. He didn’t see anything on the splint.
To make his rounds, he should have been accompanied by one or even two people. Before the judges, he invoked a “overload” of work and a lack of trained personnel. The day before his tour, he also complained in an SMS sent to a colleague.
“It’s shit in Brétigny, it farts in all directions (…) I’m worn out…”
the railwayman judgedin an SMS on July 3, 2013
He challenged his indictment, a request rejected in February 2021. Cand 33-year-old man does not wish to speak before the opening of the trial, where he will appear free. “It seems premature to us”, justifies to franceinfo his lawyer, Philippe Valent. The railway worker faces up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.
Throughout the investigation, the victims demanded the indictment of other railway workers and SNCF executives, wishing to put faces to this disaster. “By sending him back, we forget everything else and make him a martyr. The judges made an excessive skimming”, regrets to franceinfo Gérard Chemla, lawyer of 30 victims.
What do the civil parties expect from the trial?
Many victims denounce the many gray areas that remain despite the investigations of the judges. “We dried our tears. Now we want answers”claims Thierry Gomes, president of the association Mutual aid and defense of victims of the Brétigny disaster, in The Parisian. “The trial will not bring a miracle solution, but it is part of the road to reconstruction”, believes Gérard Chemla. According to the lawyer, telephone tapping makes it possible to understand that the SNCF does not assume its faults.
“We expect the SNCF to tell the truth because we have a defense system based on lies.“
Gérard Chemla, civil party lawyerat franceinfo
“It should have been an assize trial because the facts are sabotage”reacted for his part Xavier-Philippe Gruwez, another lawyer for victims, with AFP. “Since 1997, a purely financial management has been put in place which has led to the constant reduction of infrastructure maintenance teams and the destructuring of their training. This has had the consequence that things have not been done, or badly done. It’s a whole system that is called into question”, lamented for his part on France Inter a delegate of SUD-Rail. The union is a civil party to the trial, among 184 people.
I was too lazy to read everything, can you give me a summary?
On July 12, 2013, a Paris-Limoges Intercités train derailed in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), about fifteen minutes after its departure. This crash is one of the worst rail disasters in France in the last twenty years. It claimed the lives of seven people and injured more than 400 others. The derailment is linked to the detachment and rotation of a splint, a kind of large staple used to connect two rails using bolts.
Nearly nine years later, the trial should make it possible to understand what which led to his detachment, with one issue: determining whether the derailment was foreseeable or not. At the end of the judicial investigation, two legal persons, SNCF and the SNCF Réseau track manager, were sent to court. A single natural person, a young local manager, will appear. All are tried before the correctional court of Evry (Essonne) for “involuntary homicides” and “involuntary injuries” for eight weeks, from Monday April 25 to Friday June 17.