The suicide on Tuesday evening of a TGV driver who jumped from his moving train caused significant disruptions on the SNCF network.
This tragedy affected thousands of travelers using the South-East high-speed line on Christmas Eve.
But how did the driver's train stop?
Follow the full coverage
The 1 p.m.
Tuesday evening, December 24, a TGV driver committed suicide by jumping from his cabin (new window) in progress. This “personal accident“, as the SNCF calls it, was the cause of significant delays on the South-East high-speed line, which affected around ten TGVs and affected thousands of passengers on Christmas Eve, with delays up to five hours.The safety of train passengers was not threatened at any time“, assures the railway company, in a press release. The incident took place in the south of Seine-et-Marne, in the town of Crisenoy, around 8 p.m.
The safety device, called “Automatic standby with support control” (Vacma), activated as planned, ensuring the train stopped. “The train driver must constantly press his traction wheel or pedals. After a few seconds, if the driver is no longer doing this, an alarm goes off in the cabin. And if it does not react to this alarm, after a few seconds, the emergency braking system is put into place“, explains Arnaud Aymé, transport consultant within the SIA Partners firm, in the TF1 news video at the top of this article.
Traffic resumed five hours after the incident
Traffic on the LGV Sud-Est was immediately interrupted in both directions. The trains had to be diverted and took another route, which caused longer travel times, according to SNCF explanations. During this time, the firefighters and the police were contacted. As is the procedure, a judicial police officer is notified and immediately goes to the scene. It is he who can authorize the resumption of traffic. Last night, it was given at 1 a.m., five hours after the accident.
-
Read also
“It wasn’t fantastic…”: thousands of passengers spent their New Year’s Eve on blocked trains
There are on average around a hundred passenger accidents each year. But it rarely concerns the train driver. A judicial investigation was opened to investigate the causes of death and entrusted to the Melun gendarmerie company.
