Eleanor Service |
On Tuesday the 10th of February, a tragic collision occurred between two trains on a single track route in Germany. 10 lives were initially claimed, and the death toll has now risen to 11. Severe injuries were sustained by a further 20 people, and a further 82 people are recovering from injuries. The death toll has risen after a man involved in the train crash succumbed to his injuries and tragically died. All 11 deaths were suffered by men aged between 24 and 59, and both drivers and two train guards were killed in the crash.
Clearance operations are still in place, the removal of the wreckage is happening slowly because of the location. Two large cranes have been taken to the site to help with this process, as the collision occurred on bend in a wooded area, situated above a canal, and this has lead to vehicle access being difficult.
The crash happened between two passenger trains, carrying around 150 people. It occurred at 06:48 am local time, near Bad Aibling, a spa town about 60 km (37 miles) south-east of Munich, in the south-east corner of Bavaria. Both trains were travelling around the area limit of 100 km/hr (62 mph) when they crashed head-on. Officers are saying that they assume both drivers had no visual contact prior to the crash, because the site is on a bend, which lead to them crashing with little braking beforehand. Both drivers involved in the collision were employed by the same private firm, Meridian, which has a contract for short-distance train services in the area.
The two trains were on a single-track route between Rosenheim and Holzkirchen. One train involved was the 06:10 from Holzkirchen. It was due to arrive at Kolbermoor at 06:44, and so it was four minutes late for its next stop, and shouldn’t have been there at all. Why it was, is one of the many questions needing answered about this dreadful incident. The other train was the 06:37 from Rosenheim. This was due at Bad Aibling at 06:51. How did these two trains end up on this stretch of track at the same time? Another of the many questions being posed as authorities work to explain how something so horrible could have happened.
It isn’t clear yet as to the cause of the crash, whether it was as a result of a technical failure, or because of a human error. A third option has also been proposed. That somebody meant for this crash to happen. But an act of sabotage like that, possibly caused by cutting wires or by interfering with signal boxes, would require a great deal of technical understanding. Karl-Dieter Bodack, a former development engineer for Deutsche Bahn (a German railway company), told the Huffington Post that he could only interpret Tuesday’s crash as being a criminal act. He said:
“If you accidentally turn something off, the technology steps in. You can push buttons, as much as you like – driving on the same track is impossible.”
Data recorders, or “black boxes”, were on board the vehicles. Two of the three have been recovered, but the third is still being searched for. It is thought that these could help to shed light as to what happened just before the crash, and how it could have occurred.
What is making this tragedy all the more unlikely and confusing is the fact that the section of line the trains collided on has an automatic braking system. This system is supposed to alert the driver as to when they are approaching a red signal, and to activate the brakes if they pass it, or if the driver does not respond quickly enough. The modern safety system installed is also supposed to slow the train down if it is going too fast. Drives get warnings in their cabs, too, if there is a problem, but the speed at which the two trains hit each other indicates that no warning was given to either driver. It is still unknown as to why this system failed to prevent this crash, despite it, according to officials, passing safety checks last week. On top of this modern safety system there is a final layer of safety that is supposed to prevent terrible incidents such as this. In case signals fail, cab signalling known as PZB (Punktfoermige Zugbeeinflussung in full, which translates to “intermittent train control”) is supposed to set off an alarm in the driver’s compartment, when the train draws near a red light. The drivers should respond by pressing a button, if they do not then the train will automatically brake.
But despite the many safety procedures in place this terrible tragedy still happened and many people died, with many more suffering injuries. We now need to look at how this happened, and how we can stop it happening in the future.
