Rail crash of Port-Holy-Foy

The rail crash of Port-Holy-Foy is an accident to a Crossing level in the Port-Holy-Foy commune of (the Dordogne) the September 8th 1997 which made 13 dead and 43 wounded, including 10 seriously flarings. It is due to a collision between a Tanker in charge of 31 tons of Hydrocarbure S (fuel, super without lead, gas oil) and a Autorail.

The heavy truck was immobilized on the level crossing, at the moment when the rail-car ensuring occurred the Bordeaux-Sarlat connection via Bergerac. The shock involved the ignition of the oil products starting a fire which heavily worsened the assessment of the accident. The driver not having seen the indications of automatic crossing level located after a curve, arrived too quickly and at inserted the lowered barriers. It is the most serious accident of crossing level ever which has occurred in France.

The president of the SNCF, Louis Gallois, which went on the spot the very same day in company of the Minister for transport, Jean-Claude Gayssot, stated that this type of accident unacceptable and was estimated that there were too many level crossings in France, specifying that one removed approximately 500 of them per annum out of 17.500.

Following this accident, a list of the qualified level crossings of the “previous occupants” was drawn up and in 2002, an objective of suppression of 15 passages per annum was laid down.

This level crossing was finally replaced by a highway-bridge in July 2001, nearly four years after the facts.

The lawsuit which was held into 2002 is concluded by the judgment from the driver from the truck at three one-year suspended sentences.

See too

Crossing level

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