ZAGREB, February 19, 2018 - Representatives of the national union of train dispatchers told a news conference in Koprivnica on Monday that the railway maintenance company HŽ Infrastruktura was jeopardising rail traffic safety.
"It is not a question whether an accident like the one that happened in Duga Resa on Sunday will happen again, the question is when it will happen," said deputy union leader Mario Grbešić.
Grbešić said that HŽ Infrastruktura jeopardised rail traffic safety by not removing railroad failures in time.
He said that the union was holding the news conference outside the Koprivnica train station to point to the fact that, "on the 13-kilometre-long railway section Koprivnica-Gyekenyes, there are as many as three level crossings that have been out of service, namely unsecured, for 14 months." "Safety on those crossings depends entirely on rail workers who work there," he said.
Union representatives also complained about labour shortages and plans for new lay-offs.
Commenting on the railway accident that happened in Duga Resa, when a cargo train hit a car on a level crossing killing two people on board, Transport Minister Oleg Butković said on Sunday that his Ministry had drawn up a national programme for level crossings, to serve as the basis for defining what the country's 1,500 level crossings should look like and what kind of equipment they should have.
Butković said that Croatia would seek funding for the project from the World Bank and the EU.
