French rail company charged with manslaughter over fatal 2013 crash
France’s state-owned rail company was charged with manslaughter on Thursday over the deaths of seven people in the 2013 derailment of a high-speed train. The company that manages the track was charged on Tuesday.
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Seven people died and dozens were injured when four carriages of a train carrying 385 passengers from Paris to the west-central city of Limoges jumped off the tracks, three overturning and one ploughing across a platform and landing on a parallel track.
An expert report published in July this year found that the accident was caused by a faulty fishplate – a joint bar that links two pieces of rail.
It also found about 100 identifiable defects, including missing or loose joints, in the area around Brétigny-sur-Orge, about 25 kilometres south of Paris, where the crash took place.
Several of them had been known for up to eight months and one crack in a metal part had been registered in 2008.
The SNCF rail company was expecting to be charged following the charging of permanent-way company RFF on Tuesday.
The company "has always said it will live up to its responsibilities and it is important to be able to take part in the enquiry", said its lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny.
Stéphane Gicquel, head of an organisation representing victims, welcomed the move, saying it will be "interesting to hear answers from SNCF and RFF".
The two companies have the right to request a separate survey if they do not agree with the conclusions of the expert report.
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