and a first glimpse whats going on in the hearing... at least somebody is asking the right questions...
Irish Times, September 16, 2009, 13:06
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...breaking38.htm
Quote:
Irish Rail accused over bridge collapse
Senior Irish Rail executives were today accused of playing with thousands of people's lives by not closing a busy rail line when safety concerns were raised five days prior to its collapse.
Labour Party transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said countless lives could have been lost when a bridge on the cross-border Dublin-Belfast rail line crumbled into the sea near Malahide last month.
Mr Broughan told TDs and Senators that a member of the public had flagged up concerns about one of the piers supporting the bridge to Irish Rail less than a week before the collapse.
“We could have been attending funerals for weeks. This could have been one of the most horrendous events in the history of our country,” Mr Broughan said.
“Why didn’t you stop the trains on August 17th?” He added: “Why did you take a chance on August 17th?
But Iarnród Éireann chief executive Richard Fearn said the complaint was taken seriously and a structural engineer was sent to examine the scene.
“We did not take a chance, we reacted properly and professionally and when we got further information that there were no immediate risk but there were issues that needed to be looked at we sent a structural engineer to do an assessment,” Mr Fearn said.
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