5 Bulgarian Railroad Employees Sacked over Derailment

Three cars of the express train between the capital Sofia and the Black Sea city of Burgas derailed Monday near the Septemvri railway station in southern Bulgaria. Photo by DarikNews

The Bulgarian State Railroad Company, BDZ, have fired five employees over the Monday derailment of three cars of the express train between the capital Sofia and the Black Sea city of Burgas.

There were 150 passengers on the train, and they all miraculously escaped injuries because of the low speed on approach of the Septemvri railroad station in southern Bulgaria.

The 5 include 3 workers and 2 supervisors – of the Burgas engine-shed and the Burgas chief of security.

Transport Minister, Aleksander Tsvetkov, says the probe had shown irrefutable evidence of their guilt, but added others, from all BDZ levels, are still being investigated.

Tsvetkov, however, stated currently the resignation of the BDZ CEO, Pencho Popov, is not even on the table because his activity or inactivity have nothing to do with the incident.

Popov declared Monday, immediately after the derailment, he was resigning, but later recanted the statement telling media he said he was ready to resign if it turns out the derailment was caused by human error.