The freight train belonging to a private company went off the road while entering Ayran station from the direction of Fevzipaşa, within the borders of Gaziantep province. In the accident, 4 full wagons went off the road, serious damage occurred on the road and the railway was closed to train traffic.
The United Transport Workers Union made a statement about the accident on Sunday, February 21, 2021.
The statement from BTS is as follows; “Although there is no official explanation about the reason why the wagons run off the road, it is stated by our colleagues who made the first investigations at the scene where the accident occurred as a result of the wheel axle cutting / breaking in one of the four narrowed wagons (which is the subject of the revision work done by the private company).
The area where the accident is located is an area with a signaling system. The accident-damaged train is operated by a private company, and the brake control / repair services, which we call the dispatch and revision of this train, are carried out by TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. at Fevzipaşa Station. Since the specialized Revision Organization belonging to Turkey has been closed under the Privatization / Liberalization program, it is carried out by a competent and non-specialist private firm.
The reason why we have included so much detail is the fact that many jobs, which are also related to this accident and require expertise, are made available to non-competent subcontractors and the serious increase in the number of accidents.
After the law called the liberalization of the railway, TCDD was divided into two and a separate general directorate was established under the name of Taşımacılık, which is responsible for trains, while TCDD continued to work as responsible for superstructure and infrastructure and traffic management.
After this division made by law, train privatizations have started especially in relation to freight transportation, and on the TCDD side, road, electrification, etc. Large and small private companies started to work in their fields of activity. Recently, while large-scale privatization has been made in road maintenance, TCDD management efforts have brought to the final point in the coming days for the transfer of signaling and communication to private companies in addition to electrification.
While this is the privatization dimension of the work, the fact that the railway works, which need to be performed with special expertise and trained-qualified personnel, are made by private and partner companies, as well as the damage of the railways, there has been a serious increase in accidents due to the disappearing navigation safety.
Since 2017, when the law came into force, while the accidents expressed with them have been experienced, dozens of our citizens and personnel have lost their lives in these accidents. Apart from these accidents, the number of incidents returned from the accident, which we call "near miss", is many times more.
When the privatization and subcontracting process of the road-signaling-communication-electrification workplaces and works, which we call superstructure, was added to the process of privatization of the operation of trains and the complete abandonment of safety due to movement with the logic of profit, superstructure and train navigation safety were largely destroyed.
Elazığ accident, in which two personnel died on 05.08.2017 on the Divriği-Iskenderun line, where private train operations were intense, the accident that occurred in 2018 at the Hekimhan station, and the other accidents afterwards, this accident occurred lastly. The accidents are not limited to this single line, an accident occurred on the oil filling road at the Körfez station in the past months, the wagons loaded with fuel oil were overthrown in the accident,
It was spilled on the ground and turned into a great disaster, but irreparable environmental pollution occurred as a result of fuel mixing with the soil.
There was an increase in the accidents of the institution within this process, and in the accident that took place in Çorlu on July 08, 2018, 25 citizens and personnel died in the crash of the Ankara YHT train and the guide locomotive on December 13, 2018 December 9.
Again in this 3-year period, we have had many friends who lost their lives from train personnel as a result of accidents / collisions of the freight trains belonging to the institution.
When all these accidents are considered together, it is the reason that privatization and the institution is left to the management of incompetent persons, the lack of lessons from the events and the scientific studies revealed, and the persistence of privatization and subcontracting practices.
However, in the accidents involving these special freight trains; brake etc. It will be seen that even security operations are carried out by private companies, personnel are employed far above the standards they should be due to profit ambition, and the security element that requires cost is ignored while operating. Again, as an element of privatization and politicization logic; In the accident that occurred on October 10, 2020, the plate (rotating bridge) in Karabük, which was used to turn the locomotives in direction, was constantly defective and did not work, and the plate in Çankırı was transferred to the Municipality and a playground was built on the land, and the accident and the signalization system was opened without activating the YHT. collision accident with guide locomotive.
In the accident that occurred in Çorlu; “Unless there has been an accident until today, it will not happen after this”, it has been revealed with the additional expert report submitted to the court, that the incapacity to work, alienation from science and engineering, privatization and political staffing came to the fore.
Finally, there was no death or injury in this accident that occurred at the entrance of Ayran station. showed that the railways were taken to very bad points and now that the bottom point is approaching.
What happened after the PTT was divided into two and the railways broke up in a process similar to the sale of Türk Telekom is obvious. Railways are now constantly associated with accidents, and ongoing privatizations will bring a much worse process and results than the case of Türk Telekom, because railways are involved in transportation and the human factor is involved.
Now even the simplest, preventable defects / errors result in accidents as the management and control of the work is taken over by the unemployed as a result of privatization. Another factor of the accidents is the appointment of people who do not have foreign merit experience to the corporate culture to the top management of TCDD, TCDD Taşımacılık AŞ and TÜRASAŞ General Directorate, which constitute the whole of the railways.
Despite these accidents and our warnings, the insistence on not giving up privatization and subcontracting practices leads the institution to much worse points.
We know that the railway administration has been preparing for new privatizations and presented this to the political power in recent days. If these new divisions and privatizations come to life, the railways will enter an irreversible path. The country, institution and all employees will be harmful, the future of railway workers will be darkened.
While the road is close, we invite TCDD management and the Ministry of Transport to reverse this mistake, to come together with unions, scientists and chambers to find solutions, and to end privatization and subcontracting practices immediately.
Be the first to comment