the images of the cabin at the time of the accident projected during the trial

On the second day of the Eckwersheim accident trial, the Paris Criminal Court viewed a video shot in the cabin of the test TGV during the disaster.

On this second day of the trial of the most serious TGV accident in France, that of Eckwersheim, in Alsace, a video shot in the cabin of the train which derailed on November 14, 2015 is shown before the Paris criminal court. The SNCF is on trial, alongside two of its subsidiaries, and three railway workers for homicide and involuntary injuries. The results of this accident during a test of the new high-speed line left 11 dead and 42 injured.

The president first addresses the victims and their loved ones. “The next few minutesshe says, are going to be difficult”. She advises those who wish to go out. The lights go out. The room is immersed in the closed doors of the train going at full speed. The landscape passes by at full speed. The GoPro camera fixes the front of the TGV. We don’t see any faces. We hear voices in the distance, while the dull noise of a TGV traveling at 360 km/h dominates. And then these words: “We’re driving too fast, brake, brake!” The order is given too late. We see the train overturn, tip over, cross the embankment and smash into an open field. The camera is still staring at the front of the train. The window is broken.

And then panicked voices rise: “Is everyone here? Free me, free me!” and cries of pain. The seven people in the cabin are on top of each other. They can’t get out. They call for help. And these first questions: “It didn’t slow down. Why? We did it I don’t know how many times, it didn’t slow down! We were going too fast.” For a long time, the railway workers remained in the cabin, unable to get out. In the courtroom, the atmosphere is heavy.

The victims and their loved ones present deeply marked

Two men come out of the room, they can’t stand these videos. People put their heads in their hands. Many tears flow. Many relive this Saturday, November 14, while they were on the train. Some have also lost loved ones. This is the case of Agnès Miannay, seriously injured. She lost her husband:I felt like I was still with him a little, our last moments together. For myself, who was also on the train, it’s hard. It’s hard for everyone actually, but it’s both necessary, I think.”

“I feel like I’ve relived our last moments.”

Agnès Miannay, victim and widow of victim

at franceinfo

Questioned earlier in the afternoon, an investigating gendarme recounted this “apocalypse scene”, he said. A scene he discovered, “this smell of blood, of burninghe remembers, these wagons totally destroyed”. A day that had a profound impact on his career as an investigator.