Serbian minister denies railway to blame for crossing accident

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Serbia’s Traffic and Infrastructure Minister Zorana Mihajlovic told Monday’s media conference that ramps are being put up at the railway crossing where five people were killed last week because the local people want it as an extra precaution and denied that the Serbian Railways were to blame for the accident.

Five people were killed and more than 20 hospitalized when a train rammed into a bus on a railway crossing in a village outside the city of Nis. Local residents organized a protest over the weekend, saying that they have been demanding a ramp and signal lights on the crossing for decades and adding that fog makes it impossible to see if a train is approaching.  

Mihajlovic said the ramps will be put up within 15 days at the demand of the local residents and added that experts assess where ramps should be placed. She said earlier that this is one of the railway crossing with the greatest visibility in Serbia. “Some crossing were a priority and they were completed,” she said.  

Asked by an N1 reporter if the experts had made an error in judgement, the minister reiterated that the ramps were being put up so that the local population would feel safer. “If the citizens insist so much on feeling safer we will do this. The experts did not fail. The Serbian government has earmarked almost 50 million Euros which we have been investing over the past two years in added security for railway crossings,” she said.  

“We know very well who was to blame (for the accident) and it is not the fault of the railways,” she said. Mihajlovic said the accident showed that traffic regulations have to be respected. “The tragedy happened and we have the name of the person responsible. It has been clearly stated who is responsible and in what way,” the minister said.

  Earlier on Monday, a young man was injured when his car was hit by a train on an unsecured railway crossing in a village in central Serbia. The crossing has a sign but no ramps or signal lights. The young man drove over the rails in fog when the train hit his car.