The trial of the Brétigny rail disaster opens this Monday, April 25 in Essonne, eight years after the tragedy. On July 12, 2013, a train linking Paris to Limoges derailed in this small station in the Paris region, killing seven people and injuring hundreds. For eight weeks, the SNCF and SNCF network, as well as a young executive of the company, must answer for manslaughter and involuntary injuries before the court of Évry.
When the Intercités train 3657 derails as it passes at 137 km/h in Brétigny-sur-Orge station with 385 people on board, we are in full rush hour on a Friday departure on vacation. One of the cars lay down on its side, another got in the way and mowed down the travelers who were waiting on the RER C platform. In total, seven people were killed and hundreds were injured or traumatized by the tragedy.
Eight years later, 144 civil parties want ” understand why and what are the responsibilities of each “says the president of the association of victims of the disaster Thierry Gomes. He himself lost his parents that day.
SNCF disputes the experts’ report
The material cause of the accident was established by the investigation with the tilting of a splice, a metal rod which connects two rails between them. The bolts that held it broke one after another over several weeks.
The president of the SNCF at the time of the events, Guillaume Pépy, admitted the responsibility of the company in the accident, but the latter contested since the report of commissioned experts by the courts, which concluded that there was a lack of maintenance.
Not enough to reassure the civil parties about the outcome of a trial, where only the railway worker who carried out the last inspection a week earlier is directly implicated.
Victims are waiting for an explanation of how predictable the disaster was and who was at fault
Gérard Chemla, the victims’ lawyer