At the beginning of the week, something happened that shouldn’t happen anymore on the main line between Sandträsk and Gullträsk outside Boden.
Mikael Kuhmunen, chairman of Sirge’s Sami village, received a message about four hit reindeer.
– In recent years, collisions have been very unusual here as the fences have been newly repaired and newly built. So we have been spared and felt safe having reindeer near the railway. It was completely impossible before, he says.
“I’ve had enough”
According to Kuhmunen, the reason for the accident is that the fences were cut open or pushed down.
– I have no idea who did it. This is a common problem and earlier this year I had a meeting with the Swedish Transport Administration, who promised that it would not happen again.
He has now had enough of the reindeer being hit, even though the risk of that should be considerably lower now.
– It doesn’t feel funny and unnecessary that human carelessness should be able to cause things like this and I’ve had enough of this. This must not be repeated when the fences are as good as they are now and you are deceived in good faith, but you should never be too sure, he says.
“Investigating the incident”
The Swedish Transport Administration tells SVT Sápmi that they have a clear picture of what has happened at the site.
– What we know at the moment is that the reindeer got through the fence and onto the track, and that there were four reindeer that died in connection with this. That is what we know about the incident, says Peter Jonsson, press communicator at the Swedish Transport Administration in the northern parts.
Do you know any reason why the reindeer got through the fence?
– No, we are investigating it now. As for the southern part of Malmbanan, there is a part where we are working on replacing large parts of the game fence. We must continue to investigate what happened right here, why the reindeer managed to get up right here. We do not know what happened to the fence at the moment. If it is an external influence or some work that we have done. We don’t know exactly what happened at the moment, says Jonsson.