On the night between Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th May, an exercise proposed and organized by the Società Rete Ferroviaria Italia will take place inside the San Giovanni tunnel, along the Pescara – Termoli line, on the San Vito Lanciano – Fossacesia section, with the aim to verify and consolidate the operational procedures and communication flows between the various institutions involved in the management of a hypothetical emergency event along the railway line, as well as the readiness of interventions.
The exercise is part of the Annual Plan of activities of the FSI Group, in relation to the obligations deriving from the Ministerial Decree of 28 October 2005 “Safety in Railway Tunnels” for tunnels longer than 5000 meters and is part of the continuous training course on the safety of the rail transport, allowing RFI staff to put into practice what they have learned in the training phases both in relation to rescue and driving trains and assistance operations.
The hypothesized accident scenario involves the technical failure of a TUA Spa regional train, inside the San Giovanni Tunnel, with consequent fire and injury to the driver driving the vehicle, which will require the intervention of the Fire Brigade. Command of Chieti, of an ambulance of the 118 service of the ASL 02 Lanciano Vasto Chieti, of the Railway Police, in addition to the personnel of the Italian Railway Network, FS Security and TUA Spa, also engaged in the assistance and safety of travelers (identified figures among the volunteers of the Regional Civil Protection Agency).
In particular, the National Fire Brigade will coordinate the rescue operations on site through the intervention of operational personnel from the Chieti Command, using the bimodal vehicle, a particular vehicle supplied to the Lanciano Fire Brigade headquarters, capable of transiting both on the road and along the tracks of the railway line for extinguishing fires and the rescue of passengers stuck inside the train, while the safety framework outside the tunnel and the traffic will be guaranteed by personnel from the Police Headquarters, the Traffic Police, the Provincial Commands of the Carabinieri and Finance of Chieti and by the Local Police Command of San Vito Chietino, coordinated by the Prefecture of Chieti.
