SPLIT, CROATIA – Police have began the second phase of investigation of the tragedy near the Croatian coastal city of Split when six people were killed and more than 50 injured as a train detailed on  its way to the summer resort on Friday. Criminal police in Zagreb and Split called in eight people from the Croatian Railways company for questioning. Unofficial sources said that after questioning, Ivan Medak, the director of ecology and protection at the Croatian Railways company and three other people from the company have been arrested. 

Police in Split are also carrying out intense investigative measures into the tilting train derailment and according to the first information, three people have been arrested, but their identities have not been revealed. According to the Jutarnji list daily, Ivan Tomaskovic, the owner of the Intrade company from which the Croatian Railways bought the anti-corrosive substance for railway tracks which is the most probable cause of the accident, has been arrested, as well as Tihomir Grgec and Drago Rogulj, the head of the Split branch of the Croatian Railways.

Abuse of office 

As Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko said on Sunday, the investigation is based on finding people responsible for the procurement and use of the substance for the protection of the railway tracks which, according to forensic experts, is the cause of the train derailment.

First suspicions fell on Ivan Medak and Tihomir Grgec who is the head of procurement for the railways.

According to the Vecernji list daily, Medak did not wish to comment on the police investigation. Police are apparently charging him for abusing his position in the Croatian railways company and signed a deal on the procurement of the protective substance without the knowledge of his superiors. It has also been determined that the substance was ineptly used on the tracks.