Brétigny trial: maintenance “failures” at the origin of the derailment, according to a report


The Evry criminal court, which has been judging the SNCF, SNCF Réseau and a former railway executive since Monday for the accident of a train in Brétigny-sur-Orge in 2013, presented several extra-judicial reports on Friday, including one which evokes “failures” of “maintenance” at the origin of the derailment.

The train derailed due to a disassembly of this track device

This train disaster caused 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries on July 12, 2013, due to the overturning of a steel fishplate – a sort of large staple that joins two rails together – on which the absence of certain bolts and a crack had not been detected during the surveillance rounds.

According to a report drawn up during the investigation by experts appointed by the courts, the train derailed due to disassembly of this track device, linked to a “fatigue” failure of bolts and the spread of a crack detected in 2008 in a crossing core.

“The failures in the maintenance operations played a role in the disassembly of the coupler at the origin of the derailment”, explains the final report of the Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA-TT) delivered in September 2015 and summarized Friday by the court.

The defects at the origin of the disaster could have been spotted during a routine inspection, according to the BEA-TT.

Three reports were conducted

Also according to this report, the aging of the railway which has led to the multiplication of maintenance operations could “lead to differentiating certain tasks considered as secondary and could thus modify the representation that the agents have of the normal state of the installations”.

One of the writers of this report, quoted by the civil parties, was absent from the hearing on Friday.

Furthermore, according to the experts hired by the SNCF during the investigation, the offending assembly may have suddenly failed due to a defect in the steel. This is confirmed by another report presented on Friday and written by the Safety Audit Department (DAS) of the SNCF in January 2014, explaining that “metallurgical expertise will have to be carried out” to explain the cause of the derailment.

After the accident, three extra-judicial reports were carried out: one from the BEA-TT, attached to the Ministry of Transport, one from the DAS and a maintenance report from SNCF Infra, responsible for maintenance at the time.

These three reports will be at the heart of the debates throughout the trial until June 17. The hearing is adjourned until Tuesday morning.



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