Gare de Lyon rail accident

The railway accident at the Gare de Lyon was the collision of a local train whose brakes had been accidentally put out of action, a standing in Paris at the underground station of Gare de Lyon second commuter train on June 27, 1988 at 19:09 clock. 56 people died.

• 3.1 accident
• 3.2 investigations
• 3.3 Technical consequences
• 3.4 trial

Initial situation

The Gare de Lyon is a railway terminus and has an underground station with four tracks, which serves suburban services. From track 2 the driver André Tanguy had 19:04 with the local train No. 153951, a railcar of type Z 5300 will depart to Melun. His platoon commander, however, had been delayed, so that he was standing on a train station five minutes later still. This meant that more and more travelers ascents. The lead vehicle of the railcar was standing right in the height of the access stairs to the platform, so that the train was very crowded here.

A second train, No. 153944, was from Melun ( Departure 17:38 clock ) to Paris go. The service was provided by two four-unit railcars, also of type Z 5300. These vehicles have on the one hand an air brake, on the other hand, an electric brake to reduce the wear of the brake pads when braking at high speed. The electric brake but was reluctant used by train drivers, as their use together with the air brakes could lock the wheels.

Shortly before 27 June 1988, the exchange had taken place on the summer schedule. One traveler, a 21 -year-old single mother, was unaware that the train no longer stopped at the Vert de Maisons station. To be able to pick up their children on time from school, she operated there at 18:36 clock the emergency brake, got out, and then quickly left the station.

The accident

Vert de Maisons happening in the station

The driver had to reverse to normal after the emergency brakes of the railcar. To this end, he had to pull a lever on the wall between the cars. He used the next available lever between the front engine car and the second segment of the railcar. Since the lever jammed, the engineer was looking for additional support. He accidentally locked and unnoticed through the brake line. Thus, the rear seven cars were disconnected from the brake system.

The first led to the fact that the driver could not solve by the emergency brake still applied brakes of this car. The driver had properly now need to call a technician, who would have detected the error probably. That if an engineer would, however, put a lot of time and the driver did not want to continue to be delayed: He tried to solve the problem yourself. He believed that the air pressure in the brake line was too high, that a so-called " air lock" is created, which can happen if the emergency brake is applied. It was, therefore, on the one side of the train along manually, leaving in all seven vehicles, the compressed air from. The engineer did the same on the other side of the train. Thus, the brakes broke away. By accidentally closed the main brake pipe no air now came more into the brake system of the back seven vehicles and their brakes were so functional. Only the brakes of the rail car itself, and thus only one-eighth of the usual braking power, were still available.

The stay at the station had now gone on for quite a long time and some travelers got off the train in order to reach their goals differently. This has reduced the number of injured later.

Ride to the Gare de Lyon

The gauge of the front drive vehicle showed the normal value, which the driver believed that everything was in order. But displayed only the pressure in the brake system of the traction unit itself was at 19:02 clock the train with considerable delay went back in and the driver spoke by train radio with the Zugleitstelle. This directed him to the last scheduled stop in front of the Gare de Lyon, Maisons -Alfort, omit to catch something of the delay and not to interfere with other trains. This station is 6.5 km from the Gare de Lyon in flat terrain. If the driver tries to keep here, he would have noticed the lack of braking force. The train would then still be able to roll out.

1.5 km in front of the Gare de Lyon showed a signal "Slow approach expect" and the driver braked. He noted that the brakes did not work properly. With the braking force available only in a fraction of it could brake the train only from 96 to 45 km / h. Then he reached the ramp that slopes down to 43 ‰ underground station at the Gare de Lyon. Now the gravity prevailed over the remaining braking force and the train accelerated. In order 19:07:30 clock told the driver of the Zugleitstelle that he had no functional brakes. The triggered a general alarm, the relevant signal box and the cabs of the trains in the area of about 10 km. In the rush to the driver now underwent two fatal errors:

• When reporting to the interlocking he forgot to specify from which train from he came forward and
• He forgot the rarely used electric brake and not turned it on. You would probably have absorbed a significant portion of the energy of the train. According to later calculations, it would have been in their use only a slight impact.

On the other hand, the driver now rescued many passengers to life by leaving the cab and brought them into the last car. They were so prepared for the impact and the relatively safest place in the train. None of these travelers was seriously injured.

The Gare de Lyon

The turnout in the entrance to the underground station of Gare de Lyon were programmed so that a train automatically snapped at a free platform. Once in the switchboard, which was responsible for the underground station, the emergency call came in, turned the dispatcher with an emergency switch all signals to "stop ". However, this also has the automatic overridden automatically zuwies an arriving train a free platform. This circuit should cause the employee to the emergency switchboard in the should have the full disposal of the railway tracks.

Probable procedure in a runaway train was to guide him on a free track. Since the driver of the train had from Melun, but forgot to mention his name or the train, came for the Dispatcher four trains as potentially out of control in question, all of which feeds on the Gare de Lyon. The driver of the train from Melun was for the dispatcher no longer accessible, as he had begun to evacuate the passengers in the rear of his train pulling part.

Because now all signals " stop" showed stopped all other trains. Their drivers were now trying to reach the dispatcher. The flood of calls in the few seconds remaining prevented the dispatcher to identify the Problemzug.

Since all preferences for the routes were deleted, the turnout for the train from Melun were not provided as programmed, but remained lying in the position which they had occupied, as the emergency program was put into effect. Thus the train from Melun was on a collision course with the still standing on the platform with a slight delay train. Meanwhile platoon leader who had appeared, however, the exit signal for the train showed "Stop " - like all other signals in the station. Had the train from Melun moved to the originally intended, free track, which would have led to a buffer stop crossing. The train had been damaged then indeed, he would not hit the second train and probably no one would have been seriously injured.

Only 30 seconds before the impact was clear for the signal box, in which the train brake problem had occurred and that the runaway train entered the occupied track. About the Speaker of the platform signal box invited the passengers to leave the train. Drivers André Tanguy heard of this and asked his turn on the intercom of the train passengers repeatedly to leave the train immediately. When he saw the train coming toward him, he nevertheless remained at the microphone and repeated his warning. He saved so many passengers life. He himself did not survive the impact.

Follow

Accident

With over 70 km / h bounced at 19:09 clock the retracting on the stationary train at the station. This was compressed against the back wall and 30 meters. The respective first vehicles of trains slipped in love and more of the stationary train were destroyed. Only a very few people who had not yet left the car, survived. In the accident 56 people died, 57 were also injured.

The first rescuers arrived around 19:20. Some of the injured were rescued only by amputation of limbs in time from the rubble. Staff and travelers of the train from Melun, who were gathered in the accident in the rear pulling part came with minor injuries.

On the platform B of the low station, a memorial was later built, and each year a memorial service at the station for survivors and survivors instead.

Investigations

Initially, a terrorist or sabotage was considered possible, as it had before in the seven years of attacks on trains.

The Commission of Inquiry came to the following conclusions:

• Main cause of the accident was the misconduct of the driver of the train of Melun.
• The lever that the brake line was shut off was to shift slightly.
• The train radio was too complicated and the driver should have been better trained for it.
• The emergency program should be redesigned so that all signals " stop" show without the automatic trainline no longer necessary.

Technical implications

As a result, a permanent emergency brake was installed on the trains, which means that the traveler only alerted the driver by pulling the emergency brake, which then initiates the braking. In terminal stations highly absorbing bumpers were installed. The training of drivers has been improved, modernized the radio system.

Legal proceedings

The travelers, who had triggered the signal in Vert de Maisons, answered on a call in the media the day after the accident. Against them, as well as against the driver, the train drivers and staff in the signal box, a criminal case was initiated. At first instance, the driver was sentenced to a four-year sentence for manslaughter. The platoon leader received six months ' imprisonment, the travelers who had triggered the signal and the employees of the interlocking fines. The decision triggered on the following day of a strike at the SNCF.

The appellate trial before the Court of Appeals concluded with a sentence of six months in prison with parole for the driver and fined for the travelers, who had pulled the emergency brake. All the others were acquitted.