Main content
Search
Footer

France Link

French rail disaster probe finds tracks 'in state of disrepair'

Inquiry into cause of Bretigny-sur-Orge derailment near Paris in July 2013, which left seven people dead, points finger at poor maintenance.

La rédaction de Mediapart

6 July 2014 à 23h50

This article is freely available.

Experts tasked with investigating one of France's worst ever train accidents found "a state of disrepair never seen before" on the rail network, French media reported on Sunday, reports Yahoo! News.

Michel Dubernard and Pierre Henquenet, appointed by a court to find the cause of the July 2013 Bretigny-sur-Orge derailment which left seven people dead, ruled out a malicious act in their report, according to Le Figaro.

But they found more than 200 problems recorded relating to the part of the track where the crash occurred and that the damage took place "over several months".

The experts concluded that "most of these problems were known to SNCF" and were not repaired adequately.

Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.

La rédaction de Mediapart

Comment

Managing cookies

We use cookies on our website, and similar technology on our mobile apps, which allow us to collect data about your device and usage of the site. Some of these are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our services and cannot be switched off.

Others are optional, and their collection of your data can be either authorised or refused by you. Please note that these both enhance your experience as a reader of our website and contribute to its performance, and that Mediapart does not sell any data about its website users to third parties.

Do you consent to Mediapart’s use of cookies or similar technology in order to enhance the services it provides ?

The cookies and similar technologies we use on Mediapart are of different natures and allow us to pursue different purposes.

Some are necessary for the functioning of the site and the mobile application (you cannot refuse them). Others are optional but help to facilitate your experience as a reader and in some way support Mediapart. You can refuse or accept them below, depending on their purpose.

Do you agree that Mediapart uses cookies or similar technologies for the following purposes ?

You can make your choice, for each category, by enabling or disabling the switch button.

Mandatory for the operation
of the site or application

Subscriber login, anonymized audience measurement, sending of push notifications, tracking of failures, highlighting of our services these tools are necessary to track the activity of our services and their proper functioning.

Here are the various cookies and similar technologies included in this category :

Authentication cookies : subscriber login.
AT Internet : anonymized audience measurement
Display of multimedia editorial content : videos (YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, INA), social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter), documents (Scribd, Document Cloud, Slideshare), sounds (SoundCloud, Spotify, Deezer), maps (Google Maps, Mapbox, CartoDB, uMap), infographics (Highcharts, GitHub, Datawrapper, Flourish, Infogram, ThingLink, jQuery, Google Fonts, Bootstrap), live blogs (24liveblog, CoverItLive), media integration support in Journal and Club publications (Embedly).
Typeform : optional questionnaires to collect readers opinions on our digital products.
Datadog (only on the website) : technical indicators and load balancing.
Selligent (only on the website) : communication with the subscriber, highlighting of services, offers and benefits.
Batch (only on the app) : sending push notifications and in-app messages.
Firebase Cloud Messaging (only on app) : required for push notifications to work on Android.
Microsoft App Center (only on app) : app update and failure tracking system.

Statistics

These tools allow us to collect statistics on site and mobile application traffic to understand usage, detect possible problems and optimize the ergonomics of our products.

Advertising retargeting

There is no advertising on Mediapart. But we do promote our content and services on other sites and social networks. For this, we use technologies made available by some advertising companies.

Content Access Management

We use the Qiota service from Opper Marketing Suite to configure the activation of a datawall on certain content (available only on the website). This system, intended for non-subscribed users, requires the input of an email address to access the relevant content. By providing this information, the user consents to its collection, storage, and use for statistical purposes. In accordance with the applicable regulations, users have the right to access, rectify, and delete their data, which they can exercise by contacting dpo@opper.io.