PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE CANTONAL GOVERNMENT OF SARAJEVO Šteta: I have no information that the driver reported a tram malfunction

(Patria) - Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton Nihad Uk addressed the public today regarding the tragedy that occurred yesterday in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when a tram derailed and killed one person and injured four others, one of them seriously.

"The accident befell us yesterday at the Government of Sarajevo Canton. We immediately adopted certain conclusions. Immediately after the accident, I went to the scene and we were there for an hour. After that, Šteta and I went together with Minister Hasanović to visit the injured. My responsibility and the responsibility of the Sarajevo Canton Government is to communicate with the public in a timely and direct manner, on the one hand. On the other hand, the responsibility is to ensure full conditions to establish the causes of the accident. In order not to present sweeping information, we decided to communicate strategically, in this way. In the past 24 hours, we have issued three statements. Today we also had a police department press conference. We did not want to compete in the speed of releasing information or images from the scene," he said.



As he added: "The moment the reasons and factual state of the accident are established, I personally will be the first, and then my colleagues, to process the responsible person."

"Also, a piece of information came out a little while ago that a decision to declare a Day of Mourning was made under public pressure. No one in the Government was against it, but we were waiting for the formal conditions to be met. When that was fulfilled, we declared a Day of Mourning. There is no reason to compete over the timing of that. We simply respected the law. Not a single member of the Sarajevo Canton Government and not a single political party was against it," he said.

He further added that it is nice to go to the Student Dormitory and the railway line and take a picture, but that this was not such a situation.

"We must protect the integrity of the process. There was an idea to take pictures at the Clinical Center, but I was against it. We should not turn this into a farce. We did everything in a coordinated manner so as not to jeopardize the investigative authorities' procedure," he said.

When asked by journalists about the use of old trams, he said:

"The tram capacity is not adequate, which is why old trams are also used. I would be happiest if we had 45 new trams and only those were used. But, unfortunately, we have not yet succeeded in that," he said.

Minister of Transport of Sarajevo Canton Adnan Šteta also answered a journalist's question about whether it is true that the tram driver reported a malfunction on the vehicle. He said he has no such information.

"There are many theories; it would be irresponsible to say anything until the expert examination is completed," said Šteta.



Journalists asked whether the tram line is safe for traffic and whether a technical inspection was carried out.

"Everything we have done has a technical inspection in all four municipalities. The new trams all meet European Union criteria. Unfortunately, we have trams from donations, from before the war, but they cannot go on the road without technical approval. From the aspect of legal regulations, traffic is safe. GRAS has withdrawn the Czech trams until the expert examination is completed, as a precaution," said Šteta.

Minister of Health of Sarajevo Canton Enis Hasanović confirmed that the minor patient is still in serious condition.



"She had a traumatic amputation. She had profuse bleeding. A vehicle that happened to be at the scene immediately transported her to the hospital," said Hasanović.