site.btaExperts Blame Unlocked Switch, Not High Speed for Hitrino Train Disaster

Sofia, March 12 (BTA) - An unlocked railway switch and not high speed caused the Hitrino train disaster, Bulmarket DM Ltd. Security Manager Svetoslav Parvanov
told a BTA-hosted news conference on Monday.

On the early morning of December 10, 2016, a freight train owned by Bulmarket, carrying flammable LPG and polypropylene from Bourgas to Rousse was derailed as it entered Hitrino Station (Northeastern Bulgaria). One of the tank cars exploded, setting fire to buildings within a large perimeter. Seven people were killed, 29 were injured, 26 houses were completely destroyed and many more badly damaged in the accident. Train drivers Dimiter Mihnev and Radoslav Petkov are standing trial in connection with the crash at the Shoumen District Court.

Parvanov referred to the findings of an expert examination commissioned by the Rousse-based railway operator abroad. Bulgarian experts declined to give a conclusion, arguing that this would place them in a conflict of interest situation.

Calculations showed that even if the train moved at a speed exceeding the limit, it could capsize if the speed was over 111.5 km/h. A court-ordered technical expert examination established that the train moved at double the permissible speed when it entered the station: 80 km/h at the first switch and 78 km/h at the second switch, while the speed limit was 40 km/h.

The Bulmarket executive said that the engines and the first five tank cars negotiated the switch and stopped at the station trouble-free. Still, derailment was inevitable, as the unlocked switch directed the front truck of the sixth car down one track and the trailing truck down a different track. As a result, the coupling between the sixth and the seventh cars broke and the train went off the tracks.

The experts found that the propylene-carrying tank car did not meet safety requirements and should not have been operated. On the whole, the railway infrastructure was also in bad condition.

"For fifteen years, we have been witnessing irregularities on the tracks. We have thus jeopardized cargoes and trains as well as people," Parvanov added.