On Sunday morning, social media, and then traditional media, spread information about a “failure of locking mechanisms”, as a result of which corn was spilled from eight wagons of a freight train on a siding in Kotomierz in the province. Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. We went to the site, talked to the police, the prosecutor’s office and people securing the train. Where did the corn go from and where did it go? What will happen to her next?
The Kotomierz railway station is located on the railway line 131 Chorzów Batory – Tczew. It was here that around 9:00 a.m. on February 25, spilling of corn from railway wagons was reported. The case quickly gained international importance. Some circles immediately associated it with the farmers’ protests, but today there is more and more talk about the provocation, which we are also leaning towards. It should be remembered that the farmers’ protests, which have been going on for a month, have been taking place in a peaceful atmosphere.
Procedure for destruction of property
The first information we managed to obtain on Monday morning came from local residents. They reported that the train had been separated, the unscattered wagons had left, and the wagons that had been scattered were still on the siding and corn was being collected.
Then we managed to call the press spokesman of the municipal police headquarters in Bydgoszcz. We learned that monitoring from nearby companies, transport documents and witness statements had been secured, and proceedings are being carried out to destroy property. For more information, we were sent to the prosecutor’s office and there we made another call.
From the province Łódź to the port of Gdańsk
At the Bydgoszcz Północ district prosecutor’s office, the deputy district prosecutor provided us with a number of new information. We learned that the prosecutor’s office initiated proceedings regarding the destruction of property of significant value, and the owner of the property estimated his losses initially at PLN 350,000. The common information that the train was going to Gdańsk was also confirmed.
The prosecutor also provided new information regarding the origin and destination of the corn. The sender of the transport was Agronex from Tuszyn in the province. Łódź, and the recipient was Viterra from Gdańsk, which intended to reload corn to a ship in the port of Gdańsk. The stop at the station in Kotomierz was a planned stop, related to the drivers’ rest and waiting for the entry to the port of Gdańsk.
Corn in coal pits
What did we find on site in Kotomierz? First of all, peace and quiet. It would seem that the site of an international event would be full of onlookers, journalists and services securing traces. None of these things. The place was not guarded or fenced off, and after crossing the marshy field it was possible to approach only the wagons and the scattered corn.
It was transported in coal wagons and, what should be emphasized, it kept spilling out of some wagons, even though the locking mechanism mentioned at the beginning was closed. Shortly afterwards, a team with mounting foam arrived on site and solved the problem. The corn heaps were then clearly smaller than in Sunday’s photos, and it was from the “foam crew” that we learned that the part that could be harvested had been reloaded onto the wagons, and the remaining corn was intended for disposal.
More in the video below:
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