Aichach railway accident

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In the railway accident in Aichach on May 7, 2018, a regional train of the Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) crashed into a standing freight train of K-Rail GmbH on the single- track Ingolstadt – Augsburg (Paartalbahn) railway line in Aichach station . Two people died and 13 were injured, two of them seriously.

Starting position

Infrastructure

The Paartalbahn is a largely single-track, non- electrified railway line in Bavaria . The line - including the Aichach station - is equipped with punctual train control (PZB) , which triggers the train to brake automatically when it crosses a signal indicating “stop” . This prevents, among other things, a train from entering an occupied track beyond a signal that instructs it to stop and colliding with a train standing there. With the exception of Aichach train station, the entire route is equipped with relay interlockings and light signals.

In the Aichach station there is a mechanical signal box of the standard design (commissioned in 1949) with pre - and main form signals . It has a continuous main track (track 2), an overtaking track that swings out from this to the signal box (track 1) and a siding that branches off in the opposite direction (track 3, butt track ), so that train crossings or overtaking are possible in this station . At the time of the accident, there was no technical monitoring for vacancy or occupancy of the tracks in the station area that would have prevented a route from being placed on an occupied track.

Trains

The freight train 98907 of K-Rail GmbH, which consisted of a locomotive ( MaK G 1206 ) and twenty empty flat cars (stake cars for transporting tree trunks) and was traveling towards Augsburg, had been waiting on track 2 since 8:59 p.m. In Aichach the crossing should be carried out with the oncoming passenger train. The oncoming train of the Bavarian regional train No. 86696 BRB was a diesel railcar of the type LINT 41 . He should have entered platform 1. Of the 19 regional trains that run from Aichach to Ingolstadt on Mondays, 17 are routed via platform 2 as planned, only one train at 6:11 a.m. and the unlucky train at 9:16 p.m. use platform 1.

the accident

The passenger train pulled into the Aichach station when the entrance signal was showing ; however, the dispatcher had inadvertently placed the train's entrance on platform 2. He noticed his mistake, but only after the train had already passed the signal, so that the withdrawal of the green signal and his emergency call via the train radio were too late and the train arriving a few seconds later, according to the accident report at 9pm: 5 p.m., head-on collided with the waiting freight train. Due to a right-hand curve in the track in the entry area, the driver of the passenger train was only able to detect the misdirection into the track of the waiting freight train shortly before the collision. In the remaining distance of approx. 130 m, he managed to reduce the speed from 90 km / h to 57 km / h before the collision through the initiated rapid braking . Both trains remained on the track, but the driver's cab of the railcar was completely destroyed by the collision.

consequences

Immediate consequences

In the railway accident , the 37-year-old driver of the passenger train and a 73-year-old passenger were so badly injured that they died at the scene of the accident. The Deutsche Bahn AG initiated the rescue of the trains that night.

Investigations

As early as the morning of the day following the accident, the Augsburg Police Headquarters had announced that, after initial investigations, a technical defect could be ruled out and that the investigations were consequently focused on human error. The 24-year-old dispatcher at the Aichach signal box had one year of professional experience and had given detailed information about the accident. He was temporarily arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide , but the warrant was suspended and he was released the same day. The District Court Augsburg sentenced in a summary proceedings manslaughter in two cases, negligent injury in 13 cases and negligent risk of rail transport to a ten-month imprisonment, which was suspended. The public prosecutor's office accused him of not having installed an auxiliary barrier on the mechanical signal box, which would have prevented another train from entering the station and thus the trains from colliding. In addition, he had omitted the prescribed route check by looking. The Federal Agency for Railway Accident Investigation published its final report on April 29, 2020.

Continue

As a result of a previous train collision on June 30, 2017 in Leese-Stolzenau, the Federal Agency for Railway Accident Investigation had issued a safety recommendation in January 2018 to retrofit train stations without automatic track vacancy detection systems. As a consequence of the accident in Aichach, the DB announced the project Technical Monitoring Track (TüFa) to retrofit hundreds of mechanical and electromechanical interlockings with electronic warning systems. A system with a track vacancy detection system is planned to prevent a dispatcher from allowing a train journey into an occupied track. The main tracks of the stations are equipped with axle counters for the technical monitoring of the route . This monitors whether the track is occupied by a train. If you try to allow a journey into an occupied track, the signal lever is blocked and an acoustic signal sounds. A total of around 600 of the 1178 mechanical and electromechanical interlockings of DB Netz are to be retrofitted accordingly without a track vacancy detection system. Installation should begin in January 2019 and be completed in 2024. Investments of 90 million euros are planned. The plant in Aichach should go into operation on May 13, 2020.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Investigation report on the train collision in Aichach. (PDF, 2.2 MiB) Federal Railway Accident Investigation Agency , accessed on May 11, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Fatal confusion? In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 2018, p. 28 ( online - May 12, 2018 ).
  3. ↑ a b c Dispatcher arrested after train accident with two dead. In: Passauer Neue Presse . May 8, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2018 .
  4. ↑ At least two dead in a train accident in Bavaria. In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved May 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Train accident in Aichach: This is how the terrible accident happened - the police are looking for witnesses . In: https://www.merkur.de/ . May 8, 2018 ( merkur.de [accessed May 8, 2018]).
  6. ^ Aichach-Friedberg district: Two dead in a train accident in Aichach. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk. May 7, 2018, archived from the original on June 29, 2018 ; accessed on May 7, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Train accident in Aichach: penalty order issued against dispatcher. In: Spiegel Online . January 28, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Dispatcher accepts judgment after train accident in Aichach. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. February 12, 2019, accessed February 16, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Investigation report. Train collision, 06/30/2017, Leese-Stolzenau. (PDF) Federal Agency for Railway Accident Investigation, January 26, 2018, accessed on April 28, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Technical monitoring of the track (TüFa), a support for signal boxes without track vacancy detection. (PDF, 2.8MiB) In: BahnPraxisB, July / August 2019. Retrieved on May 3, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Bahn wants to retrofit signal boxes . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 2018, p. 10 ( online ). ; mr: DB wants to upgrade old signal boxes . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8–9 / 2018, p. 436.

Coordinates: 48 ° 27 ′ 29.5 ″  N , 11 ° 7 ′ 15.3 ″  E