Railway accident at the Donnersbergerbrücke
The railway accident at the Donnersbergerbrücke was a rear-end collision on July 15, 1928 in the area of the exit from Munich Central Station, followed by a fire on the crashed trains , in which ten people were killed.
Starting position
The special sports train 52841 was very busy that summer evening, which is why a priority was used. These two trains were to be followed immediately by the D 49 express train .
When the priority was already available on platform 6, the engine driver noticed that he had forgotten the book timetable . Thereupon he instructed the stoker to carry out the brake test in order to get the book timetable in the meantime. The stoker had little experience with brake tests and then forgot to bring the driver's brake valve lever back into the required position. The main train was waiting for platform 8.
the accident
The preference came after his exit to the Donnersbergerbrücke , when the brake system triggered unintentional braking due to a loss of compressed air in the main air line . It took a few minutes to get the train running again. The officials responsible for the exit of the regular train missed the feedback for the priority and asked the Donnersbergerbrücke block station by phone whether the priority had already passed. A misunderstanding arose: They understood that this was the case and let the regular train leave. The advance was just starting up again when the regular train hit him from behind. A row of cars pushed into one another, leaking kerosene from the lighting caught fire and ignited the wreckage of the trains. After the main train, the D 49 also got an exit. Its collision with the burning rubble of the two trains ahead was only prevented by the attention of the engine driver, who saw the burning trains in front of him and was able to bring the train to a stop in time.
consequences
10 people died and at least 25 were also injured. The rescue operations started very slowly and two hours after the accident , not all injured persons should have been freed from the rubble. However, nobody was burned.
Seven officers were charged with the accident but were acquitted in the criminal case . The court came to the conclusion that Munich Central Station did not guarantee safe rail operations. There is a lack of orderly management structures and train notification procedures and clear regulations. Negligence or breach of regulations is not proven to the accused.
Overall, the accident can be attributed to the disastrous condition of the Bavarian railroad at the time, which was driven to a particularly high degree of wear during the Länderbahn era, was technically no longer up to date even before the First World War and was still different from the extreme stresses of the war had not recovered.
literature
- AZ in the evening, Allgemeine Zeitung; Acht-Uhr-Abendblatt, vol .: 363 = year 131.1928, 1. 3. - 31. 7., Munich, 1928. Online: http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00085870/image_1077
- Hans Joachim Ritzau: Railway disasters in Germany. Splinters of German history . Vol. 1: Landsberg-Pürgen 1979.
- Hans Joachim Ritzau: From Siegelsdorf to Aitrang. The railway disaster as a symptom - a study of the history of traffic . Landsberg 1972.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ritzau: Eisenbahn-Katastrophen , p. 43, fig. 34.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 43.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 43.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 43.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 43, in Ritzau, Eisenbahn-Katastrophen, p. 41, he names 76 injured.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 43.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 44.
- ↑ Ritzau, Von Siegelsdorf, p. 44f.
Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 31.2 ″ N , 11 ° 32 ′ 6.7 ″ E