At the end of the derailment of the Paris-Limoges train in 2013, the SNCF was found guilty of the crimes of “homicides and involuntary injuries” on Wednesday by the Evry Criminal Court. A railway worker and SNCF network have been relaxed.
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At the announcement of the verdict, neither appeasement nor satisfaction were noticeable among the thirty victims seated on Wednesday October 26, in the large courtroom of the Evry Criminal Court (Essonne). Nearly ten years after the Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) railway disaster, the jurisdiction recognized the SNCF guilty of the crimes of “homicides and involuntary injuries” at the end of the derailment trial, on July 12, 2013, of the intercity train 3657 Paris-Limoges, who caused the death of seven people and made several hundred injured.
“In the state of recurrence”, sentenced to 25 times between November 1999 and January 25, 2021 (including thirteen times for manslaughter), the SNCF will have to pay a fine of 300,000 euros. A financial sanction below that required (450,000 euros), in June, by the prosecution. After almost two months of audience (from April 25 to June 17), SNCF Réseau (ex-network Ferré de France), track manager, and a railway frame, however, were released, due to the lack of a characterized offense in Link with the claim.
Only natural person tried, former railway worker Laurent Waton, 24 years old during the accident, had been indicted in 2019. The investigating judges reproached this ex- “local leader” of Not having “noted the bolts defects” nor detected “the damage” on the section concerned during “a surveillance tour” which he had carried out alone, on July 4, 2013, ie eight days before the drama.
“It is a relief and a page that turns for my client after nine and a half years of instruction”, reacts his lawyer, Philippe is worth. “Everyone understood that this railway worker was a lampist, comments Gérard Chemla, lawyer for twenty-six civil parties and the association Entraide et Defense of the victims of the Brétigny disaster. The fact that he was the only employee indicted shows well that we should have turned to his superiors and the entire decision -making chain. If he had been condemned, we would have committed an injustice. “
a” conjunction of negligence fatal “
For two hours, the president of the court, Cécile Louis-Loyant, listed the grievances addressed by the court to the SNCF and content in the very technical judgment of 299 pages. Two of the fifteen faults reproached for the company during the investigation were retained by the Evry Criminal Court.
For the jurisdiction, the cause of the derailment is “a monitoring deficiency which led to the absence of care of a crack identified in 2008 in the metal of a very sensitive element of the way, doubled by a control failure “. “This conjunction of fatal negligence is part of a context of trivialization of the emergency, recurrence of vagaries and chronic disorganization to which the agents have been forced to adapt to the price of incurances, one, reiterated over the years , determined the accident, “develops the courtyard.
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