Report blames rail traffic controllers for 2012 crash

Wreckage of the 6 March 2012 crash: wikipedia

“Errors by on-duty traffic controllers were the direct cause of the collision between the two trains,” the report affirms, as cited by the Polish Press Agency (PAP), which has obtained a copy of the document.

According to the draft report, which was prepared by the State Commission for the Investigation of Railway Accidents, a traffic controller working at a post in the Silesian village of Starzyny set a southbound train from Warsaw to Krakow onto the wrong track.

Shortly afterwards, a traffic controller near the village of Sprowa allowed for a train bound from Przemysl to Warsaw to travel on “a track that was indicated as being busy.”

Both of the Polish State Railways (PKP) employees, Andrzej N. and Jolanta S. (full names withheld under Polish privacy laws) were already charged last year, although the investigation by the District Prosecutor's Office in Czestochowa, Silesia, extended its investigation this week for a further six months.

Meanwhile, the draft report by the State Commission for the Investigation of Railway Accidents has stated that following the mistakes made by the traffic controllers, the drivers of the trains themselves made errors, failing to follow warning signals on the rail-side semaphores.

The full report is due to be released on Friday, just days before the first anniversary of the 3 March crash. (nh)