Railway accident in Neuwied
The railway accident in Neuwied was the collision of two express trains in Neuwied on the evening of December 22nd, 1947. The cause was the inadequate operating conditions in the post-war period. 42 people died.
Starting position
The bridge over the Wied during the two-pronged East Rhine Railway between the stations Neuwied and driving Irlich . It was destroyed in 1945 and traffic was then resumed with a makeshift solution: A single-track temporary bridge was built over which the tracks in both directions of travel were led with a track loop. This created a 400-meter-long, single-track section so that only one train could ever use the bridge. It was secured from the west with the exit signal from the Fahr-Irlich station, east of the bridge with another signal for the opposite direction. Due to the war , a lack of spare parts, bad kerosene and insufficient wicks, the signals were only partially operational and the signal lighting went out again and again.
In a northerly direction from Freiburg i. B. Coming, that evening the D 269 is on the way to Dortmund . It was pulled by the 03 054 steam locomotive .
The D 48 from Dortmund to Munich Hauptbahnhof was parked in the Fahr-Irlich station : a passenger in the darkness of an inadequately lit train compartment tried to open the ventilation flap and pulled the emergency brake instead . Until the problem was resolved, the train stood in front of the southern exit signal in Fahr-Irlich station.
the accident
At this time, the D 269 was approaching Fahr-Irlich station from the south. Its locomotive driver recognized the distant signal that "expect stop" and secured the single-track section over the bridge. He was now looking for the following main signal , but did not recognize it because its lighting had failed. But he noticed very well that he was entering the single-track section, immediately initiated an emergency brake and was able to reduce his speed to 40–50 km / h.
The emergency brake on the D 48 could now be released and the train started moving. He drove as only about 10 km / h than at 18:32 collision of both locomotives arrived. Since the locomotive of the D 269 was just pulling out of the track loop, the locomotive of the D 48 hit her on the side and pushed her out of the track so that she fell down the embankment . Tenders and the three following passenger cars were swept away.
consequences
42 people died and 116 others were injured. All of the dead and injured had traveled in the three crashed cars . The passengers of the D 48, on the other hand, were left without any damage. To 21h met auxiliary trains from Engers , Linz and Oberlahnstein one.
The engineer received a prison sentence of four months in prison, although it was admitted that it was hard to award guilt that he had not seen the unlit signal.
literature
- he: After the new railway worker trial . In: Neuwied Zeitung , printed - without a date - in Ritzau: Katastrophenszenen , p. 26.
- Hans-Joachim Ritzau, Jürgen Höstel: The disaster scenes of the present (= railway accidents in Germany, Vol. 2). Pürgen 1983. ISBN 3-921304-50-4 , pp. 21-26.
- Martin Weltner: Railway disasters. Serious train accidents and their causes. Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-7654-7096-7 , p. 16.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 30.6 " N , 7 ° 26 ′ 35.3" E