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SNCF

French train crash death toll ‘rises to seven’

The death toll from the fatal train derailment at Bretigny-sur-Orge on July 12 has risen from six to seven, according to various French media reports on Monday, after a 67-year-old woman succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash.

Published: 29 July 2013 16:26 CEST
French train crash death toll 'rises to seven'
An injured person is treated by emergency services after the train crash at Bretigny on July 12. Photo: Martin Bureau/AFP

The woman had been a critical condition since the crash on July 12th at the Bretigny-sur-Orge station.

She was being treated in a hospital in the Paris region but on Monday French media sites, quoting sources close to the inquiry, reported that she had succumbed to her injuries.

Her death, although not officially confirmed, would mean the number of victims killed when the intercity train derailed just south of Paris has risen from six to seven.

Of the six, who were confirmed dead on the day of the disaster two were passengers on the train and four people had been standing on the platform. It is not clear whether the seventh reported victim had been on the train or the platform when the accident occurred.

French rail operator SNCF blamed the accident on a connecting bar that had come loose at a rail switchpoint.

More to follow.

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ENVIRONMENT

French trains ditch plastic water bottles

French national train operator SNCF has announced it will no longer sell water in plastic bottles on its services, saying the move would reduce the waste from roughly two million drinks.

Published: 15 October 2021 11:36 CEST
French train bars will no longer be able to see plastic bottles of water.
French train bars will no longer be able to see plastic bottles of water. Photo: BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP.

The plastic packaging will be replaced with recyclable cardboard for still water and aluminium for sparkling.

“Plastic is no longer fantastic,” head of consumer travel operations at the SNCF, Alain Krakovitch, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

France has gradually increased restrictions on single-use packaging to help reduce waste amid growing evidence about the impact of plastic on sea life in particular.

The government announced on Monday that plastic packaging will be banned for nearly all fruit and vegetables from January next year.

The environment ministry said that 37 percent of fruit and vegetables were sold with plastic packaging, and only the most fragile produce such as strawberries will be given an exemption on the ban until 2026.

“We use an outrageous amount of single-use plastic in our daily lives,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was working to cut back “the use of throwaway plastic and boost its substitution by other materials or reusable and recyclable packaging.”

Last year, France passed a wide-ranging “circular economy” law to combat waste that forbids retailers from destroying unsold clothes and will ban all single-use plastic containers by 2040.

Paris city authorities announced this week that they were aiming to eliminate all plastic from state day-care centres, canteens and retirement homes by 2026.

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