Polish prosecutors plan to charge a railway signal controller for unintentionally causing a head-on collision between two trains that killed 16 people at the weekend, after one was accidently sent into the other's path.
Prosecutors investigating Poland's worst train crash in 22 years said the controller faces up to eight years in jail if found guilty of incorrectly setting the track mechanism.
The two trains, one an express service from Warsaw to Krakow the other travelling to the capital, smashed into each other at a combined 100kmh near the town of Szczekociny in southern Poland. The impact sent one of the engines into the air and crashing down on several of the carriages behind it, and pushing others off the track.
"While on duty this person directed a train to Krakow onto an incorrect railway track. That led to a head-on collision with a train to Warsaw," said prosecutor Tomasz Ozimek.
Flags flew at half-mast around Poland on Monday and public events were cancelled or delayed as the country began two days of mourning.
Investigators have identified all but one of the 16 bodies found in and around the twisted wreckage, including two of the three train drivers.
Of the 57 injured passengers, 47 remain in hospital, four off them in intensive care.
The controller, who has not been named, is under psychiatric supervision due to shock.
"The prosecutors' office asked experts to examine the controller's condition. They decided that his current state does not allow us to question him," Ozimek said.
Another controller, who was on duty on Saturday night, has been put at the prosecutor's disposal for questioning but will not be charged, he added.
