French railways file complaint after level crossing incident
ByReuters
Published 13/04/2015 at 11:05 GMT
The Paris-Roubaix riders who swerved around level crossing barriers on Sunday avoided disqualification but could face legal action after French railways SNCF filed a complaint on Monday.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
"Several riders deliberately went through a level crossing in the town of Wallers, in violation of all safety regulations," the SNCF said in a statement.
"Millions of TV viewers have seen, live, this very serious and reckless infringement that could have been tragic."
"SNCF decided to file a complaint against unknown persons, leaving it up to the investigation to determine the responsibilities."
SNCF said 29 people died in 2014 in accidents around level crossings.
On Sunday the barriers went down while the peloton was approaching at about 60kph near the northern town of Wallers.
Part of the peloton managed to go through, others stopped, but a few riders swerved around the barriers seconds before the high speed train whizzed past, a move that is strictly forbidden under race rules.
The race jury, however, decided not to sanction the riders.
"The peloton were 10 metres from the barriers when they started to go down," organisers said in a statement.
"The riders in front could not stop in safe conditions. The second part of the peloton stopped.
"Consequently, the commissaires and the organisers neutralised the first part of the peloton to facilitate a regroupment with the second part of the peloton."
French champion Arnaud Demare said the cycling authorities needed to take more action.
"This needs to be taken care of, it was dangerous. We went through but it was close," he said.
A similar incident occurred last year but it hit only the eight men in the breakaway.
Seven of them crossed before the barriers went down and Belgian David Boucher was stopped by the commissaires, losing his spot in the leading group.
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