Chronology of the Novi Sad tragedy

"As the President of the Republic, I ask the High Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad and the Government of Serbia that the persons responsible for what happened be prosecuted and severely punished." When I mentioned the Government, I am also looking for political, and before that, criminal responsibility". said the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić in yesterday's extraordinary address to citizens due to accidents which happened in Novi Sad in which 14 people died.

The chain of responsibility runs from the designers, in this case the Traffic Institute CIP, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad, the independent expert supervision that gave approval for the execution of the project, the contractor, in this case the consortium of Chinese firms CRIC-CCCC, and up to the company responsible for receiving works and managing station buildings of the Railway Infrastructure and the competent Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.

Of those mentioned, only CIP, the Chinese Contractor Consortium and the Ministry have announced themselves so far.

Vesić promises a detailed investigation

After the accident, Minister Goran Vesić expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and said that in the coming days, responsibility will be determined for why the canopy that fell on the citizens was not reconstructed as part of the reconstruction of the railway station, which was officially opened in July this year.

In a guest appearance on RTS, he specified that the investigation will determine who was in the chain, made decisions, put their seals and signatures on such decisions, had the obligation to control and whether he did so.

"14 people lost their lives and the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office has the full support of the ministry to conduct an investigation into how the canopy that was built in 1964 was not the subject of reconstruction," said Vesić.

Adoption of the conceptual design

Director of the CIP Traffic Institute Slaven Tica indicated that the conceptual project was adopted in August 2020. After that, in October 2021, the conditions of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Novi Sad were obtained, and immediately after that, a building permit was obtained in October 2021.

According to Tica, in October 2023, the independent expert supervision approved the execution of works that did not include "constructive interventions" on the existing concrete canopy of the southern facade of the station building. The subject of the works included "mostly the interior of the building, the facade towards the platforms and the platform canopies".

The reconstruction of the canopy was not planned

The Chinese contractors, the consortium of Chinese companies CRIC-CCCC, announced that the concrete canopy of the railway station that collapsed in Novi Sad was not the subject of works within the reconstruction of the station.

According to their claims, the reconstruction of the canopy was not planned by the construction permit issued in 2021.

“Visual” observation

Despite numerous photos of citizens published on social networks that show scaffolding and craftsmen around the canopy during the station reconstruction works, the competent institutions maintained that the canopy on the southern facade was not the subject of reconstruction but only rehabilitation according to the conditions of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Novi Now.

These conditions, according to the document that appeared in public, instruct the contractor that he can only replace the existing sheet-covered parts with glass, as well as "replace the mosaic tile covering with a new one of the same or a new material that will follow the original artistic solution."

In addition, "Vreme" had access to a document in which the responsible planners of the Traffic Institute CIP state that "the building is in good condition in terms of construction and that visual observation shows no damage that would affect the stability of the building."

Ignoring warnings

However, there are also those who, despite the "visual assessment" of CIP engineers, indicated that it is necessary to reconstruct the canopy that collapsed in Novi Sad.

Geological engineer Zoran Đajić, who worked on the reconstruction of the Railway Station building in Novi Sad until March 2023, told N1 that work was being done on the overhang, that what Minister Vesić was saying was not true, and that according to the letters he sent to numerous addresses that the panels from the front of the bracket must be removed and that one must see what is behind them, no one answered.

Silence of those directly responsible

The only one that has not announced the details of the horrific accident in Novi Sad to the public so far is the company Infrastructura Železnice, which is directly responsible for the management of railways and railway stations in the Republic of Serbia, and which had to receive works from contractors and carry out regular monitoring of the situation in which the building is located.

At the head of this company is the former Minister of Agriculture in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Jelena Tanasković, who did not respond to Vremen's call to comment on the announcements about the investigation that should determine those responsible for the accident in Novi Sad.