2. Alpine inferno suspects acquitted
Alpine inferno suspects acquitted
A judge has acquitted all 16 suspects in a ski train fire that killed 155 people in an Austrian in November 2000. The suspects including company officials, technicians and government inspectors were cleared of criminal negligence in the disaster. A faulty heater caused the fire on November 11, 2000. In issuing his ruling Thursday, Judge Manfred Seiss said there was insufficient evidence to find the suspects responsible for the conditions that led to the blaze. "The law also has to protect those are innocent," Seiss was quoted as saying. "In this case, we had to discover how far the defendants were personally responsible for what happened. We decided they weren't responsible. This court has done everything possible to uncover the truth."
All the suspects had pleaded to negligence charges. They would have faced up to five years in prison if convicted. Relatives called the verdicts a gross miscarriage of justice. "I'm absolutely speechless. This is a slap in the to all the relatives of the dead," said Brigitte Hochhalter, an Austrian who lost her only son, Daniel. "I can't believe no one can be found who was responsible for 155 deaths," she said through tears. " in pain for months now, and that pain will continue."
The took place in the Austrian resort of Kaprun, 60 miles south of Salzburg. The dead included 92 Austrians, 37 Germans, 10 Japanese, eight Americans, four Slovenes, two Dutch, one Briton and one Czech. Among the victims were a family of four and newly engaged couple. The youngest victim was a 6 year old boy. The victims were riding a train car up Kitzsteinhorn Mountain to enjoy late autumn sunshine and balmy weather at the popular glacial peak and ski resort. Others were on their way to a snowboarding competition to the opening of the ski season. The train was pulled by cable through a tunnel for most of the more than 3,000 meters up Kitzsteinhorn Mountain to the ski . But as the car was going through the long tunnel that burrows into the mountain, fire broke out, trapping the carriage about 600 meters inside the tunnel. Only a dozen people managed to escape as the car caught fire.
Investigators said the blaze most likely began when a defect in a space heater caused a heating element loose. That in turn caused hydraulic brake oil in nearby pipes to overheat and drip onto the car's plastic-coated floor. The floor caught fire, and rubber and wood in the car helped it to spread. Prosecutors said the heater should never have been installed and should not have been so close to the hydraulic pipes. They alleged that the government inspectors as well as officials from the ski train company and the makers and installers of the heater were responsible. Lawyers representing the train operator said all safety regulations were enforced and that defects only obvious as a result of the investigation into the fire.