Minister of Transport orders urgent inspection after a raiway worker was killed in a train accident near Pleven and another worker is in hospital in serious condition

A train hit and killed an employee of the National Railway Company who was working on the repair of the tracks between Telish and Gorni Dabnik stations. This is another serious incident in the railways, which shows shortcomings in the organisation and work of the employees. A second employee was also injured in the accident late last night (June 6) and has been admitted to hospital. The reasons are being ascertained, there big delays in train services on the line towards Varna. The caretaker Transport Minister has ordered an urgent probe into the railway company due to the increasing number of incidents.

During repair work on the railway line between Telish and Gorni Dabnik stations, a technical manager was hit by a train passing on the adjacent tracks while getting down from a specialised machine. The tragic incident occurred late on June 6. The speed limit in this section is 110 km h.

The chief engineer, who narrowly escaped death, has been admitted to hospital in Pleven and is in a stable condition.

"As a result of the impact, the locomotive driver quickly pressed the brakes. The train came to a halt about 700-800 metres away from the place of impact. The second person was slightly turned by the air jet, dragged, but is alive, adequate, with bruises and contusions and is under treatment in the hospital in Pleven," said Boycho Skrobanski of the National Board for the Investigation of Accidents in Railway Transport.

According to the National Railway Infrastructure Company, the most probable cause of the serious accident was a violation of safety instructions. Following the case, the authorities have launched an investigation into why the tragic accident took place.

"We will investigate everything, obviously the opinion of the investigators is that there was non-compliance with the safety rules of the employees who did not come down from the right side, but we will investigate up the chain whether they were instructed, how this repair was assigned," said Vladimir Nikolov, administrative head of the Pleven District Prosecutor's Office.

"It is extremely disturbing that we have seen a recent accumulation of violations of safety conditions at work and non-compliance with safety conditions in the railway transport system. Worse still, we are seeing the ability of the subjective factor to increasingly influence at the expense of other conditions that eliminate it. In other words, the more likely there is to be human error and omission, the more often these things will happen," added Mario Ninov, chief expert at "Podkrepa" trade union.

"In such large organisations that manage transport and infrastructure, there must be a working quality management system. This system should analyse the problems that lead to human casualties. That is why I have commissioned an urgent probe into the possible issues that may have led to these incidents and the problems in the National Railway Infrastructure Company. On the basis of what has been found, we will take measures to ensure that the process of work in National Railway Infrastructure Company is secured," said Georgi Gvozdeykov, caretaker Minister of Transport and Communications.

When the inspections are completed, measures will be taken. Measures will be taken on the basis of inspections, the Transport Minister further specified. There is an accumulation of cases of violations in the safety of railway transport, experts point out. Due to the incident near Gorni Dabnik, the Sofia-Varna express train was delayed by more than 5 hours.