AUSTRIA: Three die as California fire-fighting aircraft breaks up and crashes
Negligence was the root cause of a fire that killed 155 people on an Austrian ski train, prosecutors said at the start of the trial of 16 resort workers and inspectors in Salzburg yesterday.
The 16 have pleaded not guilty to negligence charges arising from Austria's worst peacetime disaster, at the skiing resort of Kaprun in November 2000.
Flames ignited by a faulty electric heater spread quickly through the two-car funicular train, bringing it to a halt in a steep 3.2km tunnel and filling the tunnel with smoke.
Prosecutors said there was a "mosaic of errors", including the installation of a non-regulation electric heater, the lack of fire extinguishers or emergency hammers for smashing windows to escape and the fact that train doors jammed.
"The fire was to be expected and the accused knew that," prosecutor Ms Eva Danniger-Soriat told the court. "How can it be that the funicular train had fewer fire-protection measures than a bus?"
Defence lawyers for the 16 accused employees said their clients had done their jobs properly and no one could have foreseen the danger.
The defendants face maximum prison terms of five years on charges of negligently causing a fire or negligently causing danger to the public.
Only 12 people survived the blaze, managing to break open a window and escape as the fire ripped through the two packed carriages and brought the funicular train to a halt.
Scores of remaining victims were unable to flee the blaze because doors would not open. The dead included Germans, Japanese, Americans and Austrians.
Relatives have long complained the train should never have been allowed to run in its unsafe condition.
"I hope the trial ensures that people learn from this calamity. Austria lives off tourism, but invested absolutely nothing into safety precautions," said Mr Harald Reiser from Germany.
His 13-year-old son died on the way to glacier ski training as a member of the German Ski Federation's youth team.
The case is scheduled to last until September 25th, including a six-week summer break.
Mr Edward Fagan, the US lawyer who helped force Swiss banks into a $1.25 billion settlement for Nazi victims, has turned his attention to the Kaprun case, hoping to persuade relatives of the victims to file a lawsuit for damages in a US court.
Mr Fagan was ordered to leave the Salzburg court yesterday after the judge declared him a witness because of his connection with pictures of the burned tunnel taken by US experts. As a witness, he may not follow the trial proceedings.