An SNCF agent carrying out maintenance on Tuesday evening on the line connecting Chambéry to Modane in Savoie, where the weather was bad, died after being struck by a TER, SNCF and railway workers said.
The accident took place shortly before 8:00 p.m. in the town of Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis, in the Maurienne valley, while the man, whose age has not been communicated, "made
sure of the proper functioning of the installations
"on the tracks, said Wednesday the CGT Federation of railway workers in a press release.
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SNCF opened an internal investigation into the circumstances of this accident which occurred "
in extremely degraded climatic conditions
" according to the union.
The department was placed in orange vigilance by Météo France because of snowfall.
Shocked, the driver of the TER which was carrying six travelers, his controller and another agent who witnessed the accident were taken care of by the SNCF.
The accident caused the line in the Chambéry-Modane direction to be cut for part of the evening.