ZAGREB, CROATIA – Before he went into the police station in Zagreb for questioning, Ivan Medak, the head of the ecology nad protection at the Croatian railways company gave a statement to the Vecernji list daily in which he said he was not guilty of the crimes he has been accused of. He placed the blame on the government who, according to him, “decided on a special plan of fire protection according to which the Croatian railways worked”. 

- The Croatian government drew up a special plan of fire protection and in Article 19 it stipulated the obligations of the Croatian Railways as to how the company has to treat and clean the railway tracks to protect them from fire. The Croatian Railways Holding adopted the government’s plan and we worked according to it – Medak told the daily.

Head of Split branch of Croatian railways company arrested 

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.