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Train drivers receive prison sentences over Hitrino derailment

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Photo: Radio Shumen

Shumen District Court sentenced train driver Dimitar Mihnev to 15 years in prison, while assistant driver Radoslav Petkov was sentenced to 10 years in Bulgarian prison for the Hitrino train accident.

Convicted train drivers operated the train that derailed on December 10, 2016 in the area of ​​Hitrino station as the train was carrying polypropylene and propane-butane tanks. The train owned by a private railway company was on its route to Romania, but entering the area of  ​​the train station it did not reduce the speed to the set limit and derailment followed.

7 people were killed and 29 injured as a result. Dozens of buildings in Hitrino were destroyed or suffered significant damage after the explosion that followed the derailment.



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