Signalling error blamed for train collision

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 6

Signalling error blamed for train collision

NZPA-Reuter Cahors, France Little hope was left yesterday of more survivors being found after a head-on collision in south-west France between a packed holiday express train and a local train killed at least 24 people. Railway officials said that 23 bodies had been found, all but four of them burned beyond recognition when a fire swept through the wreckage. Others could be trapped in a carriage crushed in the collision. One person died in hospital from injuries. At least 179 were injured, 29 seriously, and 150 others had injuries. An official said: "One carriage is completely flattened and badly burnt. But one thing is certain, we

won’t find any more survivors.” Witnesses said mutilated bodies were scattered over 50 metres by the crash, which occurred on a single track at Flaujac-Gare, about 150 km south-east of Bordeaux.

The express, packed with holidaymakers heading south from Paris, was travelling at about 90km/h when it smashed into a northbound local train.

One witness spoke of a loud bang followed by great clouds of black smoke. “One of the waggons was in flames and the passengers were screaming for help,” he said. The Minister of Transport, Mr Paul Quiles, visited the scene. Officials for the State rail company said the accident appeared to have

been caused by a human signalling error. The Paris express, a weekly train that runs only during the holiday period, was behind schedule, putting it on a section of single track normally free of other traffic. Local people said there was a slight bend in the track that may have prevented the two train drivers from seeing each other. Three weeks ago eight people were killed when an express train plunged off the rails after a collision with a truck jammed on an automatic level crossing in Normandy, north-west France. France’s worst rail accident occurred in 1972 when 108 people were killed when two trains collided in a tunnel outside Paris.