Preparatory work for metro line 16, as part of the Grand Paris Express, in Chelles (Seine-et-Marne), in 2016. – Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wayne77
Preparatory work for metro line 16, as part of the Grand Paris Express, in Chelles (Seine-et-Marne), in 2016. – Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wayne77
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A new fatal accident took place on Wednesday January 5 at the construction site of « super metro » Ile-de-France, the Grand Paris Express. The victim, a 61-year-old worker working for the Eiffage company, was allegedly crushed by a metal plate weighing several hundred kilograms while she was working on handling operations on the site of the future Saint-Denis Pleyel station. She would have died instantly, according to information from the Parisian.
This is the second fatal accident on the Grand Paris Express site. The objective of this project is to serve, through the construction of 200 kilometers of metro lines and 68 stations, the major centers of activity around the city of Paris (Roissy airport, the Saclay plateau, the center of defense affairs, etc.). A little over a year ago, on December 22, 2020, Abdoulaye Soumahoro, a 41-year-old worker, lost his life after falling into a concrete mixer. « Over the past twelve months, five workers have been seriously injured in the construction of the Grand Paris Express », add the CGT 93 in a communicated.
The union evokes « hellish pace », « even on Sunday », on the site of this project contested by environmentalists. « Time constraints are very strong on this site. In the business, we know that this always results in more stress at work, more pressure on employees, modified working hours, cascading subcontracting, etc. Especially since the absenteeism linked to Covid begins to be felt in the building », commented Jean-Pascal François, administrator of the federation CGT of construction, in the columns of Parisian.
The Société du Grand Paris, which is overseeing this development project, hopes to finalize the work to extend line 14 to Saint-Denis (where the accident took place) for the summer of 2024. « Security is in no way an adjustment variable to meet deadlines », a spokesperson for the company told the newspaper. These statements fail for the moment to convince the CGT 93. Its representatives fear that « other such unbearable accidents » take place due to the « employer pressure » exerted on the workers.