The train dispatcher was arrested for the accident in Odzaci

The Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Sombor ordered the Police Administration in this city yesterday that J. M., the dispatcher of trains in Ratkovo, ordered detention due to the suspicion that he is responsible for the collision between a passenger and freight train that occurred last Friday around 6:40 pm on the track between Ratkovo and Odzak. The criminal report charges the suspect with a serious offense against general safety in connection with the offense of causing general danger, which carries a penalty of one to eight years. After the detention, J. M. along with the criminal complaint, will be brought to the acting prosecutor of the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Sombor for questioning.

As we learn, after the hearing, the prosecution will propose to the court that the suspected perpetrator be detained.

– The police filed a criminal complaint against J. only yesterday. M. After hearing the suspect, the prosecution will conduct other evidentiary actions in order to determine his guilt and its degree. Witnesses will be heard and all necessary expertise will be ordered in order to determine all the details of the accident. It is also planned to determine whether J. M. and previously committed offenses while performing work duties. If his guilt is determined for the collision that happened on Friday, the prosecution will most likely propose the measure of making calls – says “Politica” interlocutor close to the investigation.

Let us remind you that in the collision of the trains, five people were seriously injured, and 47 were slightly injured. The conductor of the passenger train suffered the most serious injuries, several broken ribs, and he was placed in the intensive care unit of the Sombor hospital after the accident.

As the company “Railway Infrastructure” announced the day after the accident, J. M. verbally admitted the failure in work that caused the railway accident near Odzak. However, the report with this and other information related to the accident, as we know, from “Railway Infrastructure” has not yet been submitted to the police or the competent prosecutor’s office in Sombor.

According to the information obtained by “Politika”, the train collision occurred when the dispatcher at the Ratkovo station gave the signal for the passenger train to start, but he did not have permission to do so. Earlier, a freight train broke down on the track to Bogojevo, which stopped on the track due to the breakdown. The driver of the passenger train, when he saw the freighter on the track, started to brake, but due to the weight of the train, he was unable to stop it. A few moments after the collision, the driver got out of the cab and prevented more serious consequences.

Most of the passengers of the passenger train were young people who were returning to their homes in nearby towns from Sombor, where they go to school or study.

According to one of them, the impact of the trains into each other was so strong that it is a miracle that there were no casualties.