Until recently, the director of the Department for Traffic Management and Regulation in the Railway Infrastructure could soon be appointed as the new director of the Railway Administration. Denis Lukacs, cousin of the former Minister of Transport Osman Nurković, although last year the railway commission determined his responsibility in the incident with a local passenger train on April 23, 2021 on the part of the railway line between Bratonožić and Bioč.
The Commission established that several employees of the Railway Infrastructure and Railway Transport acted in violation of the legal regulations that day, as a result of which traffic safety was endangered, as well as that Lukač verbally ordered his subordinate workers to start the train contrary to the regulations even before the first-instance committee came to determine the factual situation. Because of this incident, Lukac was punished with a 20 percent reduction in salary for three months, and then he was removed from the position of director of the sector.
The competition for the director of the Railway Administration was announced a month and a half ago, and the selection procedure has not yet been completed. In addition to Lukač, the current acting director of the Railway Administration, appointed in December last year, submitted candidacies for this position Želimir Radinović, including Pavle Popović, Irena Vujacic, Veso Damjanović i Mehmed Ramović.
According to the report of the commission, on that day he was the dispatcher of trains from the Bratonožići junction Željko Kastratović dispatched a local passenger train to Bioč at 11.31:XNUMX a.m., contrary to the power dispatcher's order to prohibit electric traction. That day, this part of the railway was closed to traffic and disconnected from the power grid due to the landslide.
The train drivers in that train of the Railway Transport Nikola Klikovac i Marko Marash, did not stop the train when they encountered a part of the track without voltage, even though they are obliged to do so by the service rule, but continued driving to the Bioče junction, where the train was stopped at 11.42:XNUMX by the dispatcher Bojana Vučinić. Due to the violation of safety regulations, the traffic dispatcher immediately notified the first-level investigation commission, whose president immediately went to the scene of the incident, while another member of the commission was already on the scene of the landslide.
However, contrary to the regulations, Lukač issued a verbal order at 12.01:XNUMX a.m. to start the train before the commission arrived on the scene. The Disciplinary Commission subsequently established the responsibility of the traffic dispatcher as well Milorad Matović and secretary Bojana Vučinić.
The commission found responsibility for three members of the first-instance commission Marko Stanić, Mitra Drašković i Slavka Bulgarian, who did not establish responsibility and punished Lukač, Matović and the officer Vučinić, for illegal orders and obeying orders to start the train contrary to valid regulations. A member of the first instance commission was also punished Zoran Pekovic, who, after learning about the incident, did not inform his superior, as well as the on-duty locomotive supervisor Todor Mijatović, because he violated his work obligation by not informing his superior about the incident.
Due to this incident, a total of 11 employees in Railway Infrastructure and Railway Transport were punished, who were found to have violated the regulations and endangered the safety of railway traffic by their actions or inactions, and Lukač had the highest position.
Lukač was also under disciplinary investigation in 2019, then as a coordinator for the safety management system, due to the fact that the ŽICG gauge car passed a red light intersection, endangering a passenger train on the Podgorica - Bar line, near Virpazar. He was found not guilty then.
Commission: Gross negligence in performance of work
"All the mentioned persons violated the traffic regulations, which speaks of ignorance of them or gross negligence in performing the tasks of their workplaces. It is incomprehensible that the Intelligence and Investigation Commission should be informed about an extraordinary event, and that an order to start the train should be issued immediately, thus practically preventing the Commission from carrying out its work. It is incomprehensible that orders are forwarded and executed, regardless of who they came from, if it is known that by executing that order, the regulations will be violated," the Commission's report states, among other things.
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