On Monday morning, around 4:00 a.m., a CFR Călători train hit a freight train carrying cars at the Roșiori Nord station, although initially almost all public releases said that the passenger train would have braked heavily to avoid a collision. What happened there? How was it possible for several state institutions to lie by omission in official releases that implied the freight train drivers were to blame?
Teleorman railway accidentPhoto: Antena 3 video capture
The passenger train had no business on the same line as the freight train
On Monday morning, at Roșiorii de Vede, in Teleorman, the passenger train IR 1822 Arad – Bucharest hit a DB Schenker freight train that was on line 5, was preparing for the station and was composed of 26 wagons with Ford cars were transported to the port of Constanța.
Initially, the CFR SA and CFR Călători releases spoke of a sudden braking of the passenger train, the driver doing so to avoid a collision with the freight train. It appeared that the fault lay with the freight train, where three cars had derailed, and the passenger train had braked to avoid a collision.
But a collision did occur, and this was also confirmed and explained by CFR Infrastructura after 1 p.m., the explanation being that the driver of train IR 1822, which was going to enter the station on another line, exceeded the station entrance signal, which it was already in the stop position (on red color) and bumped the last wagon of the freight train, which was on its way to the station.
The DB Schenker train was carrying Ford Puma cars from the factory in Craiova to the port of Constanța and had traveled approximately 110 km, with another 330 km to the port. The IR 1822 train had left Arad at 18.04 on Sunday, had traveled ten hours for 504 km and still had 100 km to its destination. The train was supposed to stop at Roșiori Nord from 3.59 to 4.01.
A few things are clear: the CFR Călători train had NO business being on the same track as the freight train carrying Ford cars, and even if it had mistakenly entered the same track, it should have stopped in time to avoid an impact.
It is not known, and this will determine the investigation, if the hitchhiking system in the track braked the passenger train, or the driver braked. Most likely, the emergency brake was applied automatically.
It must be said that the rules on the railway are like in the army, it is clear which line each train is on and how long it must stay “at the signal” and it very rarely happens, even in Romania, that two trains collide, at this also contributes to the numerous speed limits that make the journey take a long time.
Many times when you ride the train you can see it stop “in the field” or at a station to wait for another train, possibly of a higher rank, to pass. Trains wait for each other for each to pass in complete safety and there are also automatic warning and braking systems. Running a red light is a serious offense and happens very, very rarely.
Although things happened as I related them, at 11 o’clock it seemed very unlikely that a collision had occurred, and people were wondering why the wagons of Ford cars had derailed.
A violent collision
However, information appeared on sources indicating that the trains had collided. After 11 o’clock, the publication Club Feroviar wrote, citing sources from the industry, that the derailment at Roșiori would have occurred because of CFR Călători, because, at 3:55, the locomotive of train IR 1822 exceeded the signal for entering the station, which was on red.
Sources from the railway field, consulted by HotNews.ro, confirmed that there was an impact and that the three wagons with cars that derailed were caused by the passenger train that hit the freight train with cars, a train that stopped on one of the lines from Roșiori Nord station.
The official confirmation came after 12:00, when the director of AGIFER, the Romanian Railway Investigation Agency, confirmed that there was a collision between the two trains. “Train 1822 of CFR Călători, at the entrance to the Roșiori Nord station, passed over a signal indicating a stop”, he said, for Radio Romania NewsLaurentiu Dumitru.
AGIFER will do a detailed investigation and it will take some time before the official results are communicated. Railway traffic was affected on highway 100, there were long delays, but due to a software problem, real-time train delays have not been displayed on the Infofer portal and on the CFR Călători application for several days.
An outrageous lack of communication at CFR Călători
So, in the Roșiori case, things are completely different: the institutions have given incomplete information, and the Ministry of Transport has not said anything yet. Among all railway companies, the worst communication is at CFR Călători, which responds late and rarely provides details about delays and problems.
Alin Șerbănescu, spokesperson for CNAIR and the Minister of Transport, also spoke about the silence of CFR Călători. He accused CFR Călători of being “silent” regarding the Monday morning rail accident. “There was human error there. Basically, the locomotive, or the accelerated train, ran a red light. Fortunately, the automatic braking systems worked and there was no tragedy”, said the representative of MT, on the show “News Pass” from B1 TV.
Asked why MT has been silent for several hours, the official stated: “The Ministry of Transport is not silent, CFR Călători is silent! Basically, CFR Călători is silent. Apart from that statement, he didn’t give anything after that – and it’s a tradition at CFR Călători to keep quiet”.
“And now, since something happened, he should have come out and spoken, as CNAIR does, by the way, where I am the spokesperson. Every company has a communication structure (…). It is not normal for a company that has a communication structure to be silent for hours”, added Alin Şerbănescu.
13 people were injured, four of whom needed hospital care, but none were in serious condition.
