SNCF, two subsidiaries and three employees sent back to trial

Excessive speed, late braking, lack of coordination and risk anticipation: the SNCF, two subsidiaries and three of their employees will be tried before the Paris Criminal Court after the accident of a Test TGV which left eleven dead and 42 injured in November 2015 in Eckwersheim (Bas-Rhin).

Two investigating judges from the “polecollective accidentsof the Paris court ordered a trial against the SNCF on August 2, its Systra subsidiaries (sponsor of the tests) and SNCF Réseau (track manager) as well as against a main driver, a manager and a driver for “injury and manslaughter by clumsiness, recklessness, negligence or breach of duty of safety“, According to sources familiar with the matter at AFP. “I take note of the decision of the investigating magistrates whose analysis in law and in fact I do not share“, reacted to AFP Systra’s lawyer, Maître Philippe Goossens. During the trial,Systra will then present to the court the factual and legal reasons demonstrating that it has not committed any“, said in a press release the company. SNCF declined to comment.

“A satisfactory decision on the merits”

On November 14, 2015, 53 people, railway employees and members of their families, including four children, boarded the train for the final test of the section of the new high-speed line (LGV) between Vaires -sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne) and Vendenheim (Bas-Rhin). At Eckwersheim, 20 km from Strasbourg, the train had approached a curve at 265 km / h, very well above the 176 km / h expected. It had derailed 200 meters further, before hitting a bridge and falling into the Marne-Rhine canal. Eleven adults had died and 42 people had been injured, some seriously, in this first fatal derailment in the history of the high-speed train since its commissioning in 1981.There are responsibilities everywhere, faults in all parties, SNCF, Systra, among the pilots…“, Considered Nicolas Heury, son of a deceased victim, for whom”they are all accountable“.

Read alsoAccident of a test TGV: the SNCF meets the families of the victims

“It is a satisfactory decision on the merits and which comes to close a file which was led in a solid way“, estimated Maître Sophie Sarre, lawyer for civil parties. But for its customers,it is incomprehensible“that natural and legal persons be dismissed for injury and manslaughter”when you consider the incompetence and lack of professionalism that presided over the organization of these trials“, she added. “Such incompetence borders on willful intent“. During the investigation, the railway experts concluded that the tilting and then the derailment of the train had been caused by “excessive speedand late braking.

“Insufficient preparation”

The lack of communication within the crew was also pointed out by the Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA-TT), which had submitted two reports to the courts in February 2016 and May 2017. In their order of 231 pages, consulted by AFP, the investigating judges list the breaches of which the companies are accused: “insufficient preparation“tests of the train in overspeed, lack of anticipation of the risks of derailment, “poor communication and coordinationbetween the teams,gaps in staff trainingin charge of the tests.

In addition, the choice of the test leader from Systra to push the oar to a maximum speed of 330 km/h was “dangerous, unnecessary and contrary to recommendations» and constitutes «a reckless mistake“, according to the magistrates. The three employees had been indicted in October 2016, then SNCF and Systra in December 2017 and SNCF Réseau in 2019. In addition, no charge has been brought against three people who participated in the organization and performance of the tests of this TGV et placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness. “It is a prescription without surprise, a little disappointing. Judges could have left it to the court to judge the natural persons who were not on the train and who planned the trials“, underlined Maître Gérard Chemla, lawyer for several families of victims. Maître Gérard Chemla hopes for a trial “rapidly“which will detail”all the faultsthat have been committed.