Who is guilty: railway maintenance officers or train driver?

By Zulfiya Bainekeeva

Investigation police is considering three versions of the train deraling that took place on April 19 on route from Almaty to Atyrau, informed Bolat Kalykov, the chief transport prosecutor of Atyrau Oblast, today at the press-conference.

As the result of train derailing 68 passengers sought medical help, 14 were hospitalized (2 passengers suffered moderate harm to health). Currently in Atyrau regional hospital there are 4 passengers.

Kalykov stated that accident of such scale is the first in the history of the national company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (Kazakhstan Railways).

Practically right after the accident the Linear Internal Affairs Department of Atyrau station initiated a criminal case as per Article 295, part 1 of RoK Criminal Code “Violation of the Rules of Traffic Safety or Operation of Railway Transport …”.

- This criminal case for investigation is accepted to production by management of special prosecutors of the main transport prosecutor's office, – Kalykov told. – As the reason of an event is fulfilled by a consequence some versions.

Two main versions of the accident are: inadequate condition of tracks and mistake of the train driver (there is a turning on that section of the rails). Self-recording “high-speed tape”, that records speed changes, has been taken for examination by investigation police. The speed limit on that section is 90 km/h. Some eyewitnesses claim that the train was travelling behind time and train driver has increased the speed as the train was approached Atyrau.

Kazakhstan Railways created its own investigation commission which hasn’t completed its work yet.