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Chelyabinsk-Glavny railway station attendant found guilty in Chelyabinsk region of violation of the rules for traffic safety of railway transport and bromine transportation with violation of fixed rules entailing mass disease inflection of people

The court has recognized the evidence collected by the investigative bodies of the Urals Transport Investigations Department of the Russian Investigative Committee as sufficient to convict the OAO “Russian railways” (Open Corp.) Chelyabinsk-Glavny railway station attendant Sergey Abramov, 36 years of age. He is found guilty of crimes under part 3 of article 247 (transportation and storage of chemical substances with the violation of fixed rules entailing mass disease inflection of people), part 1 of article 263 of the RF Criminal Code (violation of the rules for traffic safety and operation of railway transport by a person, who by virtue of the work he performs or the post he holds is duty-bound to observe these rules involving, by negligence, the infliction of grave injury to human health).

The court and investigation have established that at night of 1 September 2011, Chelyabinsk-Glavny railway station attendant Sergey Abramov was in charge of transportation of train carriages, arrived at the station from Ukraine, which contained glass containers with liquid chemical substance – bromine. Knowing that there were carriages prohibited for the train sorting, Abramov did not arranged for the carriage to be uncoupled and moved. As a result, the carriage which was going in 17th cut, on his command was directed by self-operation without a shunting engine causing it to collide with another carriage by a rigid hitch. After that, the glass containers with bromine depressurized and shuttered with bromine leaking out of the shuttered bottles. Due to the chemical reaction of liquid bromine with metallic elements and parts of the carriage the containers caught fire. All this caused state unfit and impossible for further use of the hazardous cargo – bromine, resulting in necessity of its further disposal. The destruction of the cargo caused OOO “Yarkhimsnab” (Ltd) a damage of 2.8 million rubles. As the result of bromine fumes 102 residents of the Chelyabinsk region had different diseases.

The court sentenced Abramov to 1.5 years in a penal settlement and 2 years deprivation of the right to take positions related to railway transport system.