“The driver has free rein to be able to open his train door”, explains a transport expert

Renaud Kayanakis underlines that the device which predicts the failure of the driver worked in the TGV from which the driver jumped on Tuesday evening.

“The doors accessible to travelers are permanently locked but the driver is free to open his door”asserts, Wednesday December 25, on franceinfo Renaud Kayanakis, transport expert within the SIA Partners firm, after a driver ended his life by jumping from his TGV in motion, Tuesday, south of the Seine-et- Marl. THE “device” which provides “driver failure” worked, he believes, which could have prevented travelers from being injured.

“The system implemented by the SNCF, which precisely foresees the failure of the driver, results in the train stopping in less than a minute”, specifies the expert. “There are a certain number of sensors that allow us to see if there is a physical presence and if it is operational” with, among others, “eye movement and blinking”. “In this case, we know that the train stopped just a few kilometers from where the driver left his cabin, which shows that the device works”underlines Renaud Kayanakis.

On the entire railway network, there is no “a priori” It is not possible to deliberately derail a train, says this transport expert. “The train driver is not the only master on board. There are central control operations, which make traffic flow more smoothly, which have control over all the trains.” “They can even interrupt the passage of a train if necessary,” he specifies.