Sébastien Briat

Sébastien Briat (born August 17, 1982 , † November 7, 2004 at Avricourt ) was a French opponent of nuclear power . He became known through his death in an accident with a train that carried radioactive waste in Castor containers . He was the first opponent of nuclear power to die in a demonstration against the transport of nuclear waste .

To person

Sébastien Briat belonged to a Lorraine citizens' initiative called " Carpe Diem ". At the university he was active in a group of the Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT) union .

Accident

In the course of the protest actions against a Castor transport from La Hague in France to Gorleben , a group of French environmental activists tried on November 7, 2004 to interrupt the train's journey by blocking the tracks in order to express their protest. For this purpose they had laid metal pipes under the tracks in the track bed at Avricourt near Nancy and lay down next to the track at the level of the metal pipes. If the train stopped, they were prepared to be chained to the rails with the help of the metal tubes in the shortest possible time. When the train arrived, however, the activists were neither chained nor on the track.

Due to a link between errors of the action group, the train driver was not warned and had therefore not reduced his speed. The train was reported by an "advance warning group" when it passed about 10 kilometers from the blockade. At this point a helicopter was flying ahead of the train. A group deployed for such actions, which was supposed to warn the engine driver 1.5 km from the blockade point and to bring the train to the brakes with emergency signals, did not do this, however, as they were surprised by the arrival of the train. The reason for this was the fact that the helicopter, which normally flies some distance in front of the train in order to be able to identify possible dangers early, was stopping for fuel at the time of the accident. Therefore, the stoppers lacked their most important distinguishing feature for the arrival of the train. The group around Sébastien Briat could not be notified (walkie-talkies did not work), the group could not be noticed early by the police.

Since the location for the planned blockade was on a curve, the train driver did not notice the people on the track at an early stage, nor did the group around Briat notice that the train was not reducing its speed. The police reconstructions showed that the speed of the train at the time of the accident was 98 km / h. This meant that the group had only eight seconds to move away from the platform after the approaching train was detected. When the train arrived, Sébastien Briat was caught by the wind while standing one meter from the track and thrown onto the rails. Both of his legs were severed. He died at the scene of the accident.

Reactions

In the opinion of the railway union Sud Rail , the train should only have made “careful travel” on sight. This means that the train driver should have chosen the speed so that it would have been possible to stop within sight. In this curve this would have corresponded to a speed of around 30 km / h. A corresponding instruction was not given, however, the train drove at almost 100 km / h.

Sébastien Briat's group also admitted its own mistakes in a statement published in the French newspaper Liberation . The declaration ends with the conclusion: "The responsibility of all those involved, including ours, will have to be determined."

The German opponents of nuclear power were shocked. Since it was assumed that this was in the interests of the deceased, the protest against the transport continued. The protest actions planned as the Castor transport to Gorleben, which were designed as fun actions , were canceled, however, and Sébastien Briats was commemorated in many cases. The " Sortir du nucléaire " network called for mourning rallies at French train stations across the country.

The investigation initiated to determine the course of the accident came to the conclusion that there were no indications of criminal prosecution.

Web links

• Telepolis: Blocker group breaks the silence of November 9, 2004
• Telepolis: The instruction "Careful drive" was not given on November 12, 2004
• Stern: A Train of Mourning from November 8, 2004
• taz: Don't rule out track blockades , interview with Jürgen Sattari by Robin Wood from November 11, 2004

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1. ↑ Greenpeace Magazine 2.05 , accessed on November 9, 2010
2. ↑ Der Spiegel, article from November 13, 2004 , accessed November 9, 2010
3. ↑ Verivox : Article , accessed November 9, 2010.