This accident cost the insurance company 3 billion
The beginning of the problems
The emergency services quickly arrived on the scene and found no fatalities, the locomotive engineers were slightly injured, and the two occupants of the Traction were only spectators of the accident, being outside the car. The driver even went to the police explaining that it was his fault. The police smelled alcohol when the driver of the Traction was talking and took him to the police station to get his blood alcohol level. This one turns out to be positive, then some complementary tests at the hospital give a result of 0,60 grams... the legal rate of then, our driver of the day can play the national lottery!
But even if the driver of the Traction was not in violation, the trouble will begin for him, he is accused of several faults: to have driven with a smooth tire, a lack of control of his vehicle, unintentional injury and obstruction of rail traffic. The classic process in judicial cases begins: fingerprints, photos, and 36 hours of police custody. At the end of this one, his driving license is withdrawn, his identity card kept with prohibition to leave the department and a guarantee of 5.000 Francs must be paid, including 3.200 to be paid in monthly payments of 500 Francs.
But a question arises, who will pay the damages caused by the accident estimated at more than three billion francs? The answer will be given by Mr. Marcus, director of MAIF: it is the insurance company which will take care of the accident since the car was insured with them, by declaring that: "The principle of the insurance, it is to cover the faults of the insured. Certainly for us this case is a hard blow that does not go unnoticed, but we are not the only ones to take charge of the claim. Above a certain amount, we are reinsured ourselves. Mr. Marcus refuses to dramatize the affair, stating that with its 903,000 members, MAIF received 860 million francs each year, and the damage would be repaired with an increase of 300 francs per member.
Although the SNCF was held responsible because seven other accidents had occurred on this level crossing, the parties calculated the damage: For the SNCF: 4 million francs for the locomotive, 21 wagons at 150,000 francs each, plus the goods transported by the train, cans of Kronenbourg beer and packets of Knorr soup. Added to this were the additional costs of clearing the train, salvaging the wagons that had fallen into the canal, repairing the railroad track, the damaged bridge, stopping river navigation on the canal, and diverting the railway line, which was one of the SNCF's major routes. Even the association of angling of the canal is a civil party to obtain damages up to 2.000 francs for the death of 100kg of fish because of the foodstuffs fallen in the water...
By accumulating all the damages, one arrives at the sum of 3 billion Francs; which represented in 2010, 19 million euro, that is to say one of the most expensive car accidents in France!
