The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, addressed the public today regarding the tragedy that happened yesterday in Sarajevo, when the tram derailed, in which one person was killed and four were injured, one seriously.
As he stated, the Government reacted immediately after the accident and took the first steps.
“An accident happened to us yesterday at the KS Government and we immediately came to certain conclusions. Immediately after that, I went to the scene, and afterwards Minister Adnan Šteta, Minister Enis Hasanović and I visited the injured. My responsibility, as well as the responsibility of the KS Government, is to inform the public in a timely and direct manner, but also to ensure the conditions for establishing the real reasons for the accident. We didn’t want to compete in the speed of publishing information or photos from the scene of the event, we don’t want to release lump-sum information,” said Uk.
He stated that, once all the facts have been established, those responsible will be prosecuted and added that the decision to declare the Day of Mourning was not made under public pressure.
“The day of mourning was not declared under public pressure, because no one in the Government was against it, but we were waiting for the fulfillment of the formal conditions. We acted in accordance with the law. No member of the KS Government or political party was against that decision,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that tram capacities are not adequate, which is why older trams are used.
“I would be the happiest if we had 45 new trams and they were used exclusively, but unfortunately we have not been able to ensure that yet,” said Uk.
The Minister of Transport of Sarajevo Canton, Adnan Šteta, shares the opinion with the Prime Minister that the Canton needs an additional number of new vehicles, stressing that the optimal solution would be to acquire at least 30 more trams. He rejected the claims that there are technically defective trams running on Sarajevo’s railways.
“The vehicle involved in the accident is more than four decades old, but that in itself does not mean that it was defective. I did not receive information from GRAS that the driver had reported a malfunction before the accident. The tram line where the accident occurred is technically sound, and the vehicles must also pass all technical inspections before being released into traffic,” stated Šteta, adding that the GRAS company, as a precaution, has temporarily withdrawn the “Czech trams” from traffic until the expert examination is completed and all the circumstances of the accident are determined.
