The SNCF was sentenced in October to a fine of 300,000 euros for having neglected its maintenance mission.
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She doesn’t want to do “relive this drama” to the victims. The SNCF announced Monday, November 7 not to appeal its conviction for homicides and unintentional injuries in the Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) rail disaster of 2013. The SNCF declared not to appeal “out of respect for the victims first”.
After an eight-week trial, the railway company was sentenced on October 26 to a fine of 300,000 euros, found guilty of having neglected its maintenance mission. On July 12, 2013, a train derailed at Brétigny-sur-Orge station, south of Paris, killing seven people and injuring hundreds of others, psychologically or physically.
Victims “relieved”
“We are relieved that the SNCF is not appealing“, reacted Thierry Gomes, who lost his parents in the accident and who chairs the association Mutual aid and defense of the victims of the Brétigny disaster (EDVCB). “After nine years of proceedings, the majority of victims hope to turn the page.”
The release of the SNCF Réseau (ex-RFF) track manager, however, leaves “doubtful” many civil parties, comments Gérard Chemla, lawyer for a dozen of them and for the National Federation of Victims of Attacks and Collective Accidents (Fenvac). However, the trial was “extremely respectable” and “enabled victims to be recognized in their status as victims”he estimated. “We can think that the absence of a call from the SNCF will allow the victims to heal their wounds, because there is a fundamental exhaustion”he continued.