The cause of the railway accident in the Czech Republic has become known

The cause of death of people on the Prague-Czop flight during the recent accident in Pardubice (Slovakia) was the breakage of the frame of the Austrian-type sleeping car. This was stated by the company RegioJet, which was carrying out the transport, writes gromada.cz.

It noted that as of today all Austrian-type sleeping cars have been taken out of service due to design flaws that were not known before.

This decision was taken after comparing the recent tragic accident of the RJ 1021 train on the Prague-Košice-Czop route with the previous similar accident in Austria," the Czech company said.

It noted that it found many similarities with a similar breakdown of a sleeping carriage in Salzburg in Austria in 2018.

Then there was a breakage of the carriage frame between the first and second compartment. The frame breakage was the reason why the carriage broke down completely during the accident in Pardubice, which led to the loss of life," RegioJet spokeswoman Aleksandra Janousek Kostriceva said.

It is pointed out that the accident in Salzburg, which resulted in 54 people being injured, occurred during a routine manoeuvring operation. In Pardubice, the goods train hit at a higher speed, with at least twenty times its weight. The force of the collision in Pardubice was about 30 times stronger than in the Salzburg accident, resulting in significant damage to the railway train.

It added that all similar carriages will be removed from service.

The owner of RegioJet Radym Yanchura promised to pay maximum compensation to the families of the dead and injured.

Recall, late in the evening of 5 June, the RegioJet train Prague - Košice - Chop collided with a goods train. Four people died, including two Ukrainians. Another two dead were Slovakian citizens. More than 20 people were injured.