MOSCOW, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. The largest emergency on Moscow metro in its almost 80-year history that claimed 23 lives is still the major internal event a week afterwards. It is human factor that seems to be the underlying cause of the tragedy. Personnel conclusions followed: head of the metro has been dismissed, and new chief has been appointed. However, experts say this alone will hardly lead to a turnaround.
Three cars went off the tracks between the stations Slavyansky Bulvar and Victory Park on July 15 killing 23 and injuring 217. According to the investigators, the rail switch was held with a piece of three-millimeter wire that broke thus causing the crash.
Four suspects have been already arrested, including a track supervisor and his aid. Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said it was inadequate discipline of certain employees that led to the tragedy, not the systemic and complicated engineering errors.
On Tuesday, the mayor sacked the subway chief Ivan Besedin with the words the emergency had annulled the great deal of work done during Besedin’s time in office. His place was taken by former director for high-speed service at Russian Railways (RZD), Dmitry Pegov. Notably, Besedin also came from RZD, which provoked some criticism for little knowledge of subway’s specific features.