Polish driver convicted for causing Czech train crash

in July last year, Sławomir Sondaj, 50, drove his lorry onto a level crossing near the eastern Czech town of Studenka, even though a red light was flashing, warning of an approaching train.

Then a Pendolino passenger service ploughed into his lorry. The Polish driver escaped unhurt but three passengers were killed and 20 injured. The train driver lost his leg.

Sondaj told a court in the Czech town of Novy Jicin: “The barriers [on the crossing] were raised and for me that meant I could go.”

But the judge dismissed Sondaj’s account as “simply absurd.”

He said: “Both here and in Poland the principle is that when the red light is on, access [to a crossing] is not permitted." (pk)

Source: PAP