NAN-F-17
Crash
Yaounde, Nov. 7, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) Victims of a rail crash that killed at least 79 people in Cameroon have filed a lawsuit against the train operator, Camrail and its French owner, Bollore Group, on Monday.
Lawyer to the defendants, Guy Moteng, said that they were accused of negligence and involuntary manslaughter.
A packed passenger train derailed last month between the capital Yaounde and the central African country’s port city of Douala. Carriages flipped over, injuring at least 428 people.
“A Bollore executive said that the train was going at an unusually high speed and travelling with twice the usual number of carriages, with the permission of authorities, to accommodate extra passengers.
“Up to 28 victims have pressed charges for carelessness, injury and involuntary manslaughter.
“We want the blame and the chain of responsibility to be established.”
“Among the complainants are friends and family of three people who took the train and have not been found since, with no trace of them in hospitals or morgues,’’ Moteng said.
Spokesmen for Camrail and Bollore declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying “we are awaiting the results of investigations’’.
The lawsuit was filed in the town of Eseka, where the train derailed. However, Moteng said there was a possibility complaints would be raised in a court in Paris.
Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, created a government committee to look into the causes of the tragedy.
The company has also said it was carrying out an internal investigation. (Reuters/NAN)
OYE/OPI
Edited by Damilola Oyewole