Two freight trains carrying combustible materials were on the verge of colliding head-on in the Sighisoara station, after one of the mechanics fell asleep and ran over an embankment, writes clubferoviar.ro. The incident happened on Thursday morning but was not immediately reported.
Valentina Vasile, reporter Digi24: “One of the trains was carrying fuel, and the other was carrying chemical fertilizers. One of the drivers had fallen asleep and had previously consumed alcoholic beverages. The freight he was driving had passed the red stop signal, passed over a bridge and continued on its way. In front of him came another cargo. The Railway Safety Authority informed us that both train drivers braked and in this way the collision was avoided. It should be noted that the railway incident took place at 4 am and was not reported by the CFR Infrastructura company on a hierarchical scale. She reported the incident to the competent investigative structures only 12 hours later. This made it more difficult to collect information and evidence to establish the causes of the incident.”
According to clubferoviar.ro, the mechanic who fell asleep had the INDUSI protection system isolated. This system has the role of not allowing a locomotive to exceed the red signal.
The train, which belongs to OTF Grup Feroviar Român SA, went over the bridge and entered the line where the OTF CER-Fersped SA train was coming from the opposite direction, which was going to pull into CF Sighișoara station, at line 4.
Valentina Vasile, reporter Digi24: “I contacted the CFR Infrastructura company for a point of view, I have not received an answer until this moment, what is certain is that now the Romanian Railway Investigation Agency has informed us that it has started an investigation to determine who is guilty. Since Monday , next week, inspections will be made at all freight transport operators in the country to determine if there are non-conformities regarding the way in which they control the risks in the activity they carry out on the railway”.
According to clubferoviar.ro, the two trains, which carried diesel and chemical fertilizer, together had a quantity of combustible materials much greater than the truck carrying ammonium nitrate that exploded in Mihăilești in 2004, causing the death of 18 people.
Editor : D.R.
