At least 8 dead and 100 injured in German train crash

BigJackC

Regional police said in a tweet (in German) that eight people were dead and about 100 injured, of whom 50 were seriously hurt.

The drivers of both trains and two train guards were among those killed, regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk said, quoting police.

Rainer Scharf, of Bavarian police, said that "given the severity of the accident, we believe the two regional trains collided head-on at a low speed".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35530538

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/bad-aibling-mehrere-verletzte-bei-zugunglueck-a-1076352.html

Seems like human error. Head on collisions usually only happen if someone either had a massive feck up in maintenance on the signalling and the trains automatic warming system and the driver ignores the signal completely. The scenes look absolutely horrific. Tragic.

whiskeyman

Genuinely surprised such a thing could happen in Germany, knowing their precision and amazing rail network.
Must have been a terrible human error

At the same time, reports of countless number of ambulances and helicopters ready is always assuring. Hopefully all those who need medical care can get it.

Wibbs

Jesus. Hopefully the numbers of dead don't go up.

jimgoose

Gott ihnen helfen. What an awful thing.

Roger_007

Apparently this accident happened on a section of single-track line. There used to be a system for single track lines whereby a 'token' was used and only the train carrying the token could be running on the line. These days I'm sure there is a computerised version of the token, but it seems almost unbelievable that two trains heading in opposite directions could be on a single-track line at the same time, especially in Germany.

thomil

whiskeyman wrote: »

Genuinely surprised such a thing could happen in Germany, knowing their precision and amazing rail network.
Must have been a terrible human error

If there's one thing that Germans now how to manage, it is an emergency response.

As far as the rail network is concerned, that is in a far less admirable state than is generally appreciated. There has been a lack of investment over the last 15-20 years, especially when it comes to branch lines and signalling. There is also a continued reluctance on behalf of the federal government to commit the funds needed to accelerate safety upgrades, etc.

Furthermore, regional train services have been put out to tender to private companies for once again well over 15 years. This train, a "Meridian" service, is one of them. Often times, when one of these private companies or consortiums takes over operations on a line, they train their own staff from scratch, rather than taking over experienced staff from the previous operator. This is not necessarily bad per se, the VIAS/Odenwaldbahn network near Frankfurt has been operated this way without any major accidents, for example. Still, sending someone out after 3-4 months will not provide someone with the experience of someone who has operated trains on that line for ten years or longer.

Regardless of the causes, it is absolutely terrible news to see when turning on the TV. My thoughts and condolences go out to the victims and their families.

whiskeyman

I just saw an overhead pic of the two trains that ploughed into each other.
With the speeds involved for a head on crash, that number of dead is very likely to go up, and even then, the number of horrific injuries must be awful
I doubt anyone really walked out with just a minor injury

valoren

whiskeyman wrote: »

Genuinely surprised such a thing could happen in Germany, knowing their precision and amazing rail network.
Must have been a terrible human error

At the same time, reports of countless number of ambulances and helicopters ready is always assuring. Hopefully all those who need medical care can get it.

Thought the same. Hope it's not a case of a deliberate accident so to speak.

RobertKK

Awful tragedy, but how it happened is strange.

It was a section that speeds are up to 100mph, so it could have been close to a 200mph crash, if both were at similar speeds.

A safety feature on the track seems to have not worked, which would have prevented the crash, but they are not sure yet.
So either human or technical failure is seen as the main reasons, rather than anything more sinister.

RobertKK

It was a low speed crash so that is some good news. So they must have been aware they were careering towards eachother and had taken measures to reduce the tragedy.

munchkin_utd

RobertKK wrote: »

It was a low speed crash so that is some good news. So they must have been aware they were careering towards eachother and had taken measures to reduce the tragedy.

its also lucky that it happened today when the train would be relatively empty.

Schools are off for the week for midterm for the start of lent/ carnival, most kindergardens off today and tomorrow, so little to no kids would be on the train, and many parents take off the week to go skiing so also less adults on the train than normal.
Theres also carnival parades organised for today which means another group of people taking the day off rather than be commuting at that time of the morning (and a number would nursing hangovers from celebrating carnival there last night)

So its a tragedy but it really would be much worse if it were to happen when theres no school holidays / carnival time

munchkin_utd

regarding the cause of the crash, the trains should automatically brake if they pass a signal, but this can be overridden by the driver (system called PZB 90 installed in 2012)
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bad-aibling-wie-die-strecke-technisch-gesichert-ist-1.2855826

very strange how an automatic braking system didnt work.

Gone Drinking

I was on an identical coloured train from Austria to Munich on Saturday. It says it happened near Bad Aiblin, which is 2km from Rosenheim. I know we went through Rosenheim, but not sure if we were on the same line as where this has happened.

Scary stuff. Thoughts go out to everyone involved.

munchkin_utd

Gone Drinking wrote: »

I was on an identical coloured train from Austria to Munich on Saturday. It says it happened near Bad Aiblin, which is 2km from Rosenheim. I know we went through Rosenheim, but not sure if we were on the same line as where this has happened.

Scary stuff. Thoughts go out to everyone involved.

nope, the main line to Munich branches off just a little more towards Rosenheim

This is a paralell line that only has trains from Rosenheim to Munich at peak times, otherwise its just a shuttle from Holzkirchen to Rosenheim.

i was on that actual line only a few weeks ago myself.

The latest is that there was only 150 people on the 2 trains together. Normally you'd have 300 seated and maybe double that again including people standing.

Theres 2 people still missing, on top of the 9 confirmed dead.

munchkin_utd

munchkin_utd wrote: »

regarding the cause of the crash, the trains should automatically brake if they pass a signal, but this can be overridden by the driver (system called PZB 90 installed in 2012)
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bad-aibling-wie-die-strecke-technisch-gesichert-ist-1.2855826

very strange how an automatic braking system didnt work.

I was watching a report on the BBC where one of the passengers said that their train usually stopped at the passing loop and waited for the other to pass before entering that single line section.

This morning it didn't stop!

munchkin_utd

Deleted User wrote: »

I was watching a report on the BBC where one of the passengers said that their train usually stopped at the passing loop and waited for the other to pass before entering that single line section.

This morning it didn't stop!

nothing official yet, but its being reported that one or both trains were sent down the line to make up time (to get to that double track section) against a red light with the track controller overriding the safety features to they could actually drive down the track without the automatic brake activating.

So it seems to be human error but not by the driver but the signalmen.

munchkin_utd

munchkin_utd wrote: »

nothing official yet, but its being reported that one or both trains were sent down the line to make up time (to get to that double track section) against a red light with the track controller overriding the safety features to they could actually drive down the track without the automatic brake activating.

So it seems to be human error but not by the driver but the signalmen.

If that is the case, then the signalman is criminally negligent in overriding so many safety rules to do so. I actually find this hard to believe! Typing this while sitting on a train that goes on a single track!

Looks like it was a signalman after all!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35585302
Human error by a train controller was to blame for a crash in Bavaria, Germany, last week that killed 11 people, prosecutors said.
Dozens more were injured after two commuter trains collided on a single-track stretch of railway.
An area controller opened the track to the two trains and tried to warn the drivers, according to the prosecutors.
The man, a 39-year-old, is likely to be charged with involuntary manslaughter and could face five years in jail.
"If he had complied with the rules... there would have been no collision," said Chief Prosecutor Wolfgang Giese.

munchkin_utd

latest, it turns out that he had realised his mistake and tried to call the trains BUT in that hilly inaccessable stretch there seems to be a dead spot in reception.
http://www.tz.de/bayern/bad-aibling-funkloch-zugstrecke-ungluecks-6138648.html

like many plane crashes, these things are often a combination of a number of factors of negligence but with bad luck thrown in.

There was a bad crash somewhere in scandanavia too, where the trains were on a single track, the controler knew they were destined to meet catastrophically, but couldnt contact them before the inevitable crash happened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85sta_accident
Eerily similar. Trains running late, single track and one train really should have waited till the other came to the passing section, futile attempts to contact the train drivers.

In an unrelated incident that also sounds like human error,

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35611868
An empty train travelled along tracks in Belgium for 30 minutes without a driver after the man left his cabin to investigate an engine fault.
The train moved off from the platform at Landen, east of Brussels, and continued for another 12km (7.5 miles) before another driver jumped on board.

....

What is unclear is why the train was able to move away without its driver in the first place, which officials say is unprecedented.

[speculation] driver forgot to set the brake before leaving the cab![/speculation]
Luckily, for all concerned this happened in Belgium and not in a hilly country.