Lyon english summary

At 15:51 on Sunday, 23 August 2015, in the 8th arrondissement of Lyon, a train on the T2 tramway line driving on Jean XXIII boulevard toward its terminal “Saint-Priest - Bel-Air” was struck in the front by a Citroën Berlingo vehicle coming from rue Bataille and entering the platform.
Due to the impact, the three bogies of the train were derailed, and it crossed the adjacent roadway, hit two parked cars in the process, one of which hit a third car by ricochet. It then crossed the fence of a co-property and stopped a few metres from the entrance to the building. It traveled a total of 55 metres following the collision.
There were 5 victims with minor injuries resulting from this accident. The consequences, however, would have been more dramatic if another train, vehicles, pedestrians or a building were in the trajectory of the derailed train.

The direct cause of the accident was the failure of the vehicle driver to respect his traffic light which had been red for more than 30 seconds.

The driver’s inattention, who was deep in thought, and the train conductor’s lack of caution when approaching the intersection, who had limited visibility of the crossing street, contributed to the collision.
Two other factors also contributed to the significant derailment :

• the sensitivity of this type of tramway in the event of impacts with roadway vehicles ;
• the significant speed of the tramway and the failure of the conductor to brake before the impact.

The analysis of this accident led BEA-TT to issue three recommendations and an invitation on these two subjects.