Children injured in French train test
Print Edition
A FRENCH high-speed train that derailed on a test run Saturday, leaving at least 10 dead and 37 injured, had “several children” on board, the rail company said yesterday.
“There were several children on board,” a spokesman for France's state rail company SNCF said, a day after the first fatal accident since TGV trains were introduced more than 30 years ago.
He added, however, that he was unable to say if any of the children were among those who died in the derailment in Eckwersheim, near the northeastern city of Strasbourg.
“On the other hand, there are some among the injured,” he added, but said he couldn't say if their injuries were serious.
An investigation would establish the number of people on board the train and if there were passengers who were unauthorized to be there, he said.
SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy told local media that inquiries would shed light on exactly who the "accompanying people" were and how they came to be on board.
“That's not a practice that the SNCF recognizes,” he said.
“A test train is a test train.”
A team of 49 technicians and rail workers were on the train, which was travelling about 350kph on a high-speed line as part of testing for the next generation of TGV due to go into service early next year, a source close to the inquiry said.
The accident is thought to have happened “because of excessive speed,” Dominique-Nicolas Jane, a senior official in the Alsace region, said.
The accident is the first fatal accident since the TGV (“train grande vitesse” or high-speed train) went into service in France in 1981.
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