first day of the trial for the derailment of a TGV in Alsace in a packed courtroom

During the trial on Monday, Guillaume Pepy, the former CEO of SNCF, spoke for the first time on behalf of the railway company in front of the victims of the accident of November 14, 2015.

The trial of the most serious TGV accident in history in France opened on Monday March 4. On November 14, 2015, the day after the November 13 attacks, a test TGV derailed in Eckwersheim, near Strasbourg, in Bas-Rhin, and left 11 dead and 42 injured. The accident, which went largely unnoticed at the time, came before the Paris Criminal Court almost nine years later. 89 people, relatives and victims, are civil parties in this trial which takes place in a packed room.

The victims’ parents, siblings and children took their seats in the courtroom Monday, huddled together. Almost all of them wear a red cord, a sign that they do not want to speak to the press. Too many emotions rise when during her first speech, the president assures that she is perfectly aware that this trial will take place in a particular atmosphere, taking into account, she says, the suffering. It is rare, she adds, for defendants to also be civil parties.

No spirit of revenge from the civil parties

The judges will have the difficult task of determining who, in this closed session of the train, on November 14, 2015, had any part of responsibility. Agnès Miannay was one of those invited during the test. She was seriously injured and lost her husband. She is relieved that the trial is finally starting. “We sometimes had the impression of being a little forgotten, she says. To hear these names, to talk about these events, it’s very moving. And at the same time, it is important that those who died are remembered, that responsibilities are stated. I’m not after anyone, but simply that, if there are mistakes that have been made, they be recognized.” assures Agnès Miannay. No loved ones, no victims came out of a spirit of vengeance, she adds.

The former CEO of SNCF recognizes a form of responsibility

Later in the afternoon, the first witness to speak was the former CEO of SNCF, then in office. Guillaume Pepy steps up to the stand, notebook in hand, he takes notes. And in a spontaneous speech, he expresses his compassion, expresses his emotion, solidarity towards the victims. He lists the names of the 11 dead people one by one. Behind him, the wife of a killed railway worker bursts into tears. “I know how much the suffering during these collective accidents never disappears”, declares Guillaume Pepy. He remembers his astonishment that Saturday in November when he learned of the accident… “I was horrified, it was unthinkable”he said.

Guillaume Pepy ends up recognizing a form of responsibility. He pays lip service to the moral responsibility of the SNCF in this accident, but leaves it to the courts to say who is guilty. Relaunched by the lawyers of the civil parties and by the prosecutor, he recognizes that yes “mistakes, inevitably, were made”. “By who ?”, insist the lawyers. He doesn’t specify it.