TGV engine and wagon in an Eckwersheim canal near Strasbourg, in the north-east of France, after derailing on November 14, November 15, 2015 (AFP/Archives/FREDERICK FLORIN)
For the first time since the opening of the trial into the derailment of the TGV Est test train, which caused the death of 11 people in November 2015, the mourners and survivors of the accident were heard on Tuesday in the witness box, bringing to these austere audiences a share of humanity.
Sometimes hiding her annoyance with difficulty in the face of the often stereotypical and always atrociously technical responses of the six defendants, the president of the 31st chamber of the Paris court, Marie Debue, had hoped that the words of the civil parties would bring “the humanity which is lacking a little, for the moment, in these debates”.
In a packed courtroom on the benches of the civil parties and sparse on the defense side, those who spoke at the bar, sometimes in tears, showed exceptional dignity by recalling the figures who a son, a father, a brother or even an uncle, a husband or a sister, and always this “pain which remains intact”.
“I still don’t understand how we could have made so many mistakes and had so much incompetence on a war machine launched at this speed,” said Patrick Rolland, himself seriously injured in the accident which cost his life. to his brother Alain, aged 60.
Soon to retire, Alain invited several members of his family on board for this last test run of the TGV Est, including his nephew Thomas, then aged 16, who described the fear of the teenager at the time. finding himself, “terrified”, in “water, mud and pieces of human flesh”.
– “Unsustainable” –
The TGV in Eckwersheim near Strasbourg after derailing on November 14, November 15, 2015 (AFP/Archives/FREDERICK FLORIN)
Jacques Landais, Jérémy’s father, an SNCF-Réseau technician who died in the accident at the age of 27, expresses his “extreme disappointment” in the face of the defendants’ denials.
“Putting the responsibility on others is unbearable,” he summarizes, his voice firm but without anger.
“The need to say as little as possible, to protect one’s business outweighs honesty, respect for the civil parties (…) a lie detector would have been very useful during this trial”, Jacques Landais sadly quips.
“Whatever the outcome of this trial, there will always be reduced sentences for the guilty. For the victims, it is life imprisonment,” he said.
During their interrogation, the three defendants, Denis T., the driver of the TGV, Francis L. and Philippe B., two executives responsible for informing him respectively about braking points and various particularities of the track, rejected each other. responsibility for the derailment on each other.
The three companies (SNCF, SNCF-Réseau and Systra, the company in charge of the tests) also prosecuted for “homicides and involuntary injuries due to clumsiness, recklessness, negligence or failure to comply with a safety obligation”, have denied any responsibility.
At most, the SNCF representative admitted at the hearing that he had not been “perfect” in organizing the tests. “We were bad”, he conceded before immediately adding “but not bad on everything”, causing sighs on the benches of the civil parties.
Monday evening, at the end of the last questioning of the defendants, Me Gérard Chemla, lawyer for around fifty civil parties, was unable to hide his disappointment.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Gérard Chemla, at the SNCF trial at the Paris judicial court in Batignolles, March 4, 2024 (AFP/Archives/Dimitar DILKOFF)
“You are the sixth at this bar, and you are the sixth who tells us: ‘It’s not us’,” the lawyer said annoyed. “This + we have nothing to reproach ourselves + is unbearable,” added Me Chemla.
The investigation established that neither the equipment nor the track could be blamed to explain the derailment of the TGV, which was transporting 53 people, including 35 “guests”, including 2 teenagers.
The TGV approached a curve at 265 km/h, well above the 176 km/h planned for this location. It derailed 200 meters further, hitting the parapet of the bridge over the Marne-Rhine canal near Eckwersheim (Bas-Rhin), 20 km from Strasbourg, at an estimated speed of 243 km/h .
The trial is scheduled until May 16.
© 2024 AFP
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