The city of Moscow marked the first anniversary of the July 15, 2014 metro crash Wednesday — the worst accident to ever hit the Russian capital's subway system.
As The Moscow Times reported at the time, 24 people died and more than 180 were injured after a train derailed between the Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar metro stations on the Dark Blue Line (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya).
Russian radio station Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei reported that people were leaving flowers at the Park Pobedy metro station in memory of the victims. Dmitry Pegov, who replaced Ivan Besedin as head of the Moscow metro following the disaster, also paid a visit to the station.
“Today we remember with grief those who died and with gratitude those who on that awful day helped save the lives of those who became the victims of a broken switch and the negligence of those in charge of ensuring the good condition of the rails,” blogger Aleksandr Dedurenko wrote in an article published on Wednesday on the website of radio station Ekho Moskvy.
See also: Deadly Derailment in the Moscow Metro
After dismissing a terrorist attack as a possible cause of the crash, Russia's Investigative Committee revealed that the accident had been caused by poor repair work on a railway switch between the stations. The switch had been fastened using improper wiring that could not withstand the passage of trains, The Moscow Times reported following the accident.
Four people have been detained in relation to the episode, news agency TASS reported.
Earlier in July the Investigative Committee announced that the preliminary case against the four had been sent to the Dorogomilovo District Court of Moscow. The hearing began on July 2.
The derailment caused the Moscow metro damages amounting to 331.7 million rubles ($5.8 million), Tass reported. The agency notes that following the accident, a comprehensive review of the infrastructure was carried out and employees were subjected to reevaluation.
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