After seven years of investigation and eight weeks of trial, the verdict is in. The Evry court recognized, Wednesday, October 26, the SNCF as the only culprit of homicides and involuntary injuries, nine years after the derailment of a train at the station of Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), which had killed seven people and left hundreds injured and traumatized. The public company was sentenced to a fine of 300,000 euros, heavier than the 225,000 incurred, because of the state of legal recidivism of the company in matters of manslaughter, explained the president of the court, specifying that the SNCF had achieved a turnover of 34.8 billion euros in 2021.
The president of the court Cécile Louis-Loyant, on the other hand, released the two other defendants: a former railway executive, who had carried out the last surveillance round eight days before the tragedy, and the manager of the SNCF Réseau tracks (ex-Réseau Ferré of France).
“Neglect of follow-up”
On Friday July 12, 2013, at 5:10 p.m., a steel fishplate, a sort of massive staple joining two rails, had come apart, causing the derailment of the Intercités Paris-Limoges train. This pivoting is, according to the court, the consequence of the evolution of a crack in one of the hearts of the track apparatus in question, a crack detected in 2008 but poorly monitored for five years.
This damage should have been monitored annually by the SNCF. “This negligence of heart monitoring is definitely linked to the derailment”, declared the president of the court, sweeping the defense of the SNCF which attributed the accident to an undetectable defect in the steel. If the SNCF had carried out these control visits correctly, it would have “noted the damaged condition” of the heart “and proceeded to change it”continued the president.
She also acknowledged that the derailment had “undeniably affects the SNCF and its agents, in the heart of the greatness and the public service mission which is theirs: to ensure rail transport in complete safety”. She highlighted the various human and financial resources put in place by the SNCF to “to bring assistance and support to the victims of the disaster”before starting to list the damages to be paid to the very many civil parties.
“A company in denial”
“We are moderately satisfied”declared Thierry Gomes, president of the association Mutual aid and defense of the victims of the disaster of Brétigny (EDVCB). “We are grateful for the condemnation of the SNCF, the culmination of nine years of struggle, but we are disappointed with the release of the SNCF Réseau, which also has a share of the responsibility”estimated Mr. Gomes, who lost his parents in the accident.
This decision closes eight weeks of trial, from April 25 to June 17, where five weeks were devoted to technical debates. The court had also heard at length the broken testimonies of many civil parties. Like that of Stephen C., who had described in tears “the endless search” of his little brother Vincent, broke on the station platform. followed “the most trying years of [sa] life “to have to put aside his mourning for ” to manage “ his parents collapsed, before himself “crack”.
In his indictment, the prosecutor had requested a penalty of 450,000 euros against the SNCF. With this disaster, in the suburbs of Paris, “It’s a whole conception of public service that has collapsed”he had lamented, lambasting “a company in denial”which does not assume to have “trivialized the emergency” to the detriment of user safety.