“When you have experienced what I have experienced, you no longer want to live”, said Wednesday, Christian Delhasse, the driver of the metro in which the suicide bomber set off his bomb on March 22, 2016 at Maelbeek station, in front of the Brussels Assize Court. The man, visibly moved, also expressed a great feeling of guilt.
When the explosion took place, around 9:10 a.m., as his metro started from Maelbeek, Christian Delhasse first thought of damage. A glance through the cabin window confirms that it is something else entirely. He grabs his radio and makes a call asking for emergency help, all communications will then be cut off.
The Stib driver then goes into the first car to help people get out of it, the train having already entered the tunnel, they will have no choice but to get out through a window. Mr. Delhasse then goes to the second car, where the detonation took place, in view of his condition, he decides to open the 3rd and 4th cars as a priority and to guide their occupants towards the exit.
The man then returns to the destroyed car. “Visibility was down to a third due to dust“, he recounted. “At the first door, I saw a man with a hole in his head, then a dead woman whose body was burning, I took a fire extinguisher to put her out. The car was nothing more than a tangle of metal walls, seats and limbs. I helped a man free a metal bar that was bothering him, I grabbed a leg.”
After helping several people, including a woman who was looking for her baby, Christian Delhasse leaves the station, is placed on oxygen and taken to hospital. When I got home, I said to my wife and my children: ‘everything is fine, I never want to talk regarding it once more. They respected my choice.”
His wife being seriously ill, Christian resumes work the next day. “It got more and more painful, I felt like I was taking people to the slaughterhouse“, he explained, before adding that “the metro driver is responsible for all the people he transports, I am sorry for all the families of the victims. I blame myself, because these 16 people boarded my train with confidence“. “You did no wrong, you saved what you might“, pointed out to him the president of the court, Laurence Massart. “It is not enough“, replied the witness.
I get sick of it every time my kids take the subway
“I thought I might forget, but I can’t, I have memory problems, I can’t stand noise anymore, I hate crowds. I avoid public transport, which has had a strong impact on my mobility, I have been living in confinement since 2016″, said Christian Delhasse once more. “I no longer trust our institutions or anyone, I only trust animals. I no longer expect anything from this world in which I survive. No more goals, no more projects, life no longer has any interest. I would like to thank the Life4brussels association, without them I would have given up long ago.“
“When we have lived what I have lived, we no longer want to live. I am sick of it every time my children take the metro, I do not understand in the name of what we can do this, s to attack children, innocent peoples…”, concluded the witness.