The Pau public prosecutor's office requested the dismissal of SNCF and SNCF Réseau, manager of the lines, for "
unintentional injuries
" almost eight years after a train collision in 2014 which left 40 injured in Denguin (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a we learned Thursday, April 28 from the prosecutor Cécile Gensac.
The prosecution believes that there were "
shortcomings in the maintenance of the insulation of cables
", Cécile Gensac told AFP in an email, confirming information from the local press.
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On July 17, 2014, a TER traveling to Dax on the railway line linking this city to Tarbes had hit a TGV at a speed of 95 km/h.
A collision due to a signal turned green, having led the TER to start moving when it should have remained stationary.
This collision left 40 injured.
A Final Land Transport Accident Investigation Report (BEA-TT) in 2014, refined in 2016, established that the main factor of malfunctioning signaling that led to the accident was the presence of rodents in all of the network signaling booths (boxes housing the electrical equipment of the signaling system).
The maintenance operations have "
not sufficiently
", according to this report, "
taken into account the damage likely to be caused by rodents to the cables of the signaling booths
".
It is now up to the investigating judge to decide whether or not to refer SNCF and SNCF Réseau to the criminal court.