Engineer on local train suspected in fatal crash

The engineer of a local passenger train that ploughed into an InterCity express just over a week ago, killing 4 and injuring 26, was apparently responsible for the accident, wrote Wednesday's nationwide daily Nepszabadsag, citing an unpublished investigation by MAV Hungarian railways.

MAV has said it would wait for the conclusion of the official police investigation before publishing, but, wrote Nepszabadsag, the report says "there is good reason to believe" that the engineer driving the local train "violated rules and caused" the crash.

The accident occurred in the morning on Monday, October 6, when the local, which had been travelling at 103 km/h in a restricted 15 km/h zone, was only able to brake to 78 km/h before hitting the InterCity train that was travelling at the prescribed speed. The report noted that a safety circuit had not been operating along the section of the track where the accident occurred. The failed circuit sent signals to all trains, and automated equipment aboard the trains was responsible for slowing them down to 15 km/h when travelling through the zone in question.

Railway investigators apparently found that the engineer on the local train had disabled the equipment and accelerated, the paper wrote. The police investigation is still underway.

• Email
• Save to My Caboodle