The driver of a high-speed train heading from Paris to the east-central French city of Saint-Etienne on Christmas Eve jumped out of the cabin in an apparent suicide, leaving hundreds of passengers to speed away at 300kph (186mph).
In less than a minute, the train’s automated systems detected that the driver was no longer responding, and turned off the engine and kicked in the brakes, according to French state rail company, SNCF. No passengers were injured.
“A staff member noticed that there was no longer a driver in the cabin. And very quickly, he understood that, a few kilometers earlier, he had probably wanted to end his life,” Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot told French radio network Franceinfo on Thursday.
The driver's body was later discovered along the tracks. The Melun prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the cause of death, according to Franceinfo.
The driver, Bruno Rejony, 52, was a respected member of the team and an “experienced driver,” having worked for the company for 27 years, La Parisien wrote, citing someone at SNCF.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the driver was going through personal difficulties and was “very depressed.”
“It could have been more serious if he had wanted to derail his train,” Tabarot told CNEWS on Wednesday. The statement sparked an emotional response from rail unions and opposition politicians.
Rail union SUD-Rail said there was “no message of support” in the minister’s words.
Sarah Legrain, MP for the left-wing NFP similarly called out the minister’s lack of condolences for Rejony’s family.
Berenger Cernon, an NFP MP and former rail worker, slammed Tabarot’s “indecency and cynicism,” calling out the lack of “condolences, [and] mitigation of the human tragedy” in his words.
Tabarot, who was appointed on Monday, defended himself by saying he was the first to admit that the case was “above all a human tragedy.”