2023-11-27 14:06:00
The train had traveled 14 kilometers and crossed 5 level crossings before mowing down the four workers. ©AVPRESS
Six years later, the manager of the Belgian railway network, Infrabel, unveiled two innovations intended to make railway construction sites safer. And prevent such a tragedy with multiple causes from recurring.
Drama on the rail in Morlanwelz: this is how the accident unfolded (INFOGRAPHIC)
The first device, called Infralert, consists of a magnetic sensor placed directly on the rails, at a minimum distance of 600 meters before a construction site on the tracks. It must make it possible to detect trains or wagons which, as was the case at Morlanwelz, break away from a moving train. Vibrations would then alert the railway workers via a connected bracelet worn by each worker. “This will give them the necessary time – at least 30 seconds – to take shelter,” explains Leslie Steen, head of the Safer-W project at Infrabel. However, we will still have to wait until April before it is implemented on all construction sites.
A beacon placed on the rails makes it possible to detect the arrival of a train and to warn the workers who can then take shelter. ©BVB
The other device, called MBS (for Mobile Beacon Stop), will wait one more month to be put in place. They must generate a “no train’s land” in which no train can run on the rails. In summary, beacons will be installed upstream and downstream of the site. If a train passes one of these two markers, its emergency braking system will be automatically activated. “After the Morlanwelz accident, we realized that there was no automatic personnel protection system in Europe and we therefore had to develop them ourselves. We had to invent everything,” says Benoît Gilson, CEO of Infrabel.
Beacons temporarily installed on the rails, during work upstream, cause emergency braking of trains passing them. ©BVB
In November 2022, the judgment concerning the Morlanwelz accident was rendered by the Charleroi criminal court. SNCB was sentenced, in criminal proceedings, to a fine of 160,000 euros, including 80,000 euros suspended for three years, for lack of foresight. Infrabel, for its part, had been acquitted. This did not prevent it from becoming aware of the lack of safety on the rails for its workers. The civil trial, intended to compensate injured workers as well as the victims’ families, has not yet taken place.
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