Rail joints tested after death crash
Metal 'fishplate' blamed for Bretigny accident that killed six - now 5,000 such links are being checked across France
RAILWAY maintenance staff are checking 5,000 fishplate joints on tracks across France after a loose plate was blamed for causing the Bretigny-sur-Orge rail crash and the deaths of six people.
The fishplate is a flat piece of steel that joins two sections of rail together and one came loose at Bretigny and jammed points, forcing the Paris-Limoges Intercity train to jump off the track on Friday. Fourteen people are still in hospital this morning, with a total of 62 hurt in the crash.
Modern-day railway track is welded together but thousands of jointed sections of track still exist, especially around points and on older rail sections.
Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier admitted after the accident that France needed to spend more on upgrading its rail infrastructure and critics said that the TER network had been neglected in the push to invest in high-speed TGV services.
Mr Cuvillier praised the train driver who sent out an alert as the train started to derail and immediately halted all other services in the area - including another train heading directly for the crash line.
Rail services at Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris restarted this morning but are not expected to get back to normal until later this week.
