In Poland a truck hit an express train, a passenger died. The government wants to seize licences, train drivers blame the tracks

Slovak and Czech media reported the same sentence on Wednesday: in Poland, an express train collided with a truck, one victim, twenty injured. Meanwhile in Poland, a dispute began over who is actually to blame for the accident. The government announced tougher penalties that same day for drivers who enter level crossings despite a red signal, and the train drivers' union announced a protest at the same moment, arguing that the problem isn't just behind the wheel. SITA ↗ TVN24 ↗

What the prosecutor's office found

The collision occurred on Wednesday shortly before noon in the village of Sokolniki Suche in Przysucha County. The PKP Intercity train was traveling from Lublin to Szczecin. According to the prosecutor's office, the concrete mixer truck was coming from the village of Sokolniki Nowe heading toward national road number 12. Wirtualna Polska ↗

District prosecutor in Radom Robert Czerwiński described the course of events as follows: "Everything indicates that it hit the first carriage behind the locomotive of a passing Intercity passenger train on the Lublin–Szczecin route." He specified how many people were on the train using a ticket-sales figure: "At that time, a little over a hundred people were traveling on the train. We know that 111 tickets were sold." Part of the train set derailed. TVN24 ↗

What matters is the condition of the level crossing, since that is precisely what the dispute is about. "The level crossing is not equipped with barriers, but it does have light and sound signals," the prosecutor said, adding that the signaling was working properly. Investigators do not yet know why the concrete mixer driver did not stop. Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Piotr Malepszak said on TVN24 television that the driver reportedly defended himself by saying he was blinded by the sun. TVN24 ↗ Wirtualna Polska ↗

About twenty people were injured; eight of them were taken to hospitals, and four were in serious condition. One of the seriously injured passengers — who had been sitting in the first carriage that the mixer truck hit — died. Among those most seriously injured are also the train driver and the truck driver. Wirtualna Polska ↗ Do Rzeczy ↗

Government: tougher penalties for drivers

Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded that same day. "Unfortunately, this is another case where a disaster occurs at a railway level crossing," he said. TVN24 ↗

He announced a change in regulations aimed at drivers: "We must immediately begin urgent work on radically tightening the regulations." According to him, admonishment doesn't work: "Unfortunately, neither bad events nor persuasion have helped, so we have to tighten the regulations." And he added: "My proposals will be very harsh." He summed it all up in three words — "This has to stop." Do Rzeczy ↗

Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Stanisław Bukowiec outlined a concrete form: the fine for entering a level crossing should rise from two thousand to four thousand zlotys, and the driver would automatically lose their driving license for three months. This isn't a new idea — these solutions were already on the table once before and failed to pass interministerial consultation. The ministry is now returning to them. Do Rzeczy ↗

Train drivers: it's not just about the drivers

That same day, the Trade Union of Train Drivers announced a protest. Its chairman, Leszek Miętek, described the stance of those responsible as "denial of reality" on TVP Info and said: "In my conviction, we have crossed a red line, and unfortunately, talks won't help here anymore." The protest is set to begin on Friday; the union planned to announce its form at a press conference on Thursday at nine o'clock. Wirtualna Polska ↗ Do Rzeczy ↗

Their objections are not aimed at truck drivers but at the state of operations. "We are witnessing railway accidents on damaged infrastructure after prior notice of such damage," Miętek said. They also object to what is being loaded onto train drivers directly: at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, instead of watching the track, a driver is supposed to look up written orders on a work tablet, and on new train sets, drivers have taken over from conductors the task of monitoring departure from the platform via cameras. According to them, billions in investment are masking the state of the system beneath them. Wirtualna Polska ↗

Miętek also pointed out the physics that make a level crossing a special case: a train's braking distance is hundreds of meters, and up to a kilometer for fast connections. A train driver who spots a car on the crossing generally has no way to prevent anything. "We're not joking anymore, because we have no intention of going to train drivers' funerals," he said. Do Rzeczy ↗

These objections are the position of the trade union, not a finding by investigators, and they are not directly linked to the collision in Sokolniki itself — the prosecutor's office is so far talking about a truck that entered a level crossing with functioning signaling. The union published them as the reason for the protest, not as a version of the accident's cause. Do Rzeczy ↗

Why this dispute is interesting from here too

A collision at a level crossing is an event that Slovak and Czech media would cover in a paragraph and move on. In Poland, within a few hours it became a dispute over where action is actually needed — with the driver who didn't stop for a flashing light, or with the railway, which according to its own employees is running on reported faults. Both sides are talking about the same accident, and neither yet has the results of the investigation.

Slovakia and Czechia, too, are full of level crossings without barriers, with only lights and sound. The difference between the two approaches isn't about who is right, but about what gets proposed for change after the accident: a sanction for the one who broke the rule, or the environment in which the rule is broken repeatedly. The investigation in Radom is the first thing that should answer that. TVN24 ↗

Illustrative photo: a category C level crossing — light signals without barriers — on rail line number 12 near the village of Jaźwiny in Masovian Voivodeship. Photo: Olek Remesz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0