HDTP and HAKOM organised a workshop on the topic of railway accidents and damage compensation

The workshop was adapted to the participants of all professions interested in the field of rail transport.

Zagreb, 27 January 2023 Croatian Transport Law Association (HDTP) and the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) organised a new workshop in the cycle “Right of Land Transport” entitled “Railway Accidents and Compensation of Damage after Market Liberalisation”.

The creation of a single, i.e. open market for rail freight and passenger services in the EU over the last 20 years has created new market players and thus completely new legal relations among them. The separation of infrastructure management from rail transport, the disappearance of the railway undertaking — monopolist and instead access to the network to many operators, has created new risks for all market actors. Unfortunately, several catastrophic railway accidents and many smaller ones have shown that the risks are real, have caused huge financial losses and that there is an urgent need to know the answer to the question of which of the actors involved is responsible for which part of the damage, according to which regulations and to what amounts.

For the first time in Croatia, prof. dr. sc. Nikoleta Radionov Karlović from the, University of Zagreb School of Law. Tin Aničić, attorney at OD Kovačević, Prpić, Simeunović LLC. and Dragica Flam, B.Sc., from HAKOM, conducted the key issues of liability for damage caused by railway accidents in passenger and freight rail traffic. The workshop was adapted to the participants of all professions interested in the field of rail transport.

The participants learned, among other things, that legal relations between key market actors are regulated, which legal regulations apply to certain contractual and non-contractual relations of compensation in domestic and international transport  of goods and passengers by rail, for which the railway undertakings are responsible, whether and under what conditions the party which caused the damage can be relieved of its liability for damage, the amount of damage to which the damage corresponds, the rules of recourse relations between market stakeholders, mandatory and voluntary insurance of rail risks: what and how much is actually insured and about the statute of limitations of the claim. In addition, the lecturers implemented the legal rules applied to actual cases from Croatian practice procedures for compensation for damage caused by railway accidents by providing a practical learning experience and a modern hands-on approach.