Herrsching railway accident

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The Herrsching railway accident on June 19, 1951 was a particularly serious railway accident at a level crossing on the Munich-Pasing – Herrsching railway near Herrsching am Ammersee . 16 people died.

Starting position

A group of 22 fratres of the Jesuit order from Pullach went on a pilgrimage to Andechs monastery early in the morning , celebrated mass there and then went to the Pilsensee for lunch . They were traveling in a truck accompanied by a priest . In addition to the religious, the driver was also on the vehicle . On the way back they had to cross the Munich-Pasing-Herrsching railway line on a dirt road . It had a level crossing and immediately after a bend that was difficult to see for the driver and users of the crossing due to dense bushes, at around 100–120 meters. He was secured by a self-operated call barrier , the operation of which was explained to users of the transition on a notice board. Then anyone who wanted to use the level crossing had to call the dispatcher . When the cleared the way, the user had to open the barrier himself, cross the level crossing and then close the barrier behind him again. In 1950 this type of security was examined by a commission and not objected to.

The P 3461 to Herrsching had left the Seefeld-Hechendorf train station in front of it at 16:29 and reached the level crossing shortly afterwards. He was supported by a Electric Locomotive of Series E 44 drawn.

the accident

An unknown user of the level crossing had forgotten to close the barrier behind him. The truck first drove along the railway line and after about 100 meters turned off to cross it and therefore drove very slowly. The truck driver, who was not familiar with the local conditions, saw the open barriers and therefore assumed that no train was coming. So he drove on the crossing at about 10 km / h. At the same moment the train came out of the curve at around 75 km / h. Although the engine driver gave a warning signal and initiated an emergency braking . The truck driver also accelerated. But the collision could no longer be prevented. The train hit the back of the truck, dragged the vehicle with it for a while and only came to a stop after 100 meters.

consequences

16 fratres died, including one British, and 7 were also injured. They were taken to the hospitals in Seefeld and Herrsching. The funeral of the deceased took place on June 22nd in Pullach. The Requiem was celebrated by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising , Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber .

The legal processing of the accident turned out to be complicated. Some officials of the German Federal Railroad who were responsible for the safety systems of the railway infrastructure were charged . The proceedings went through two revisions at the Federal Court of Justice until a judgment finally became final in 1956 . In the end, two officials of the control commission who had not objected to the security of the level crossing in 1950 received several months' imprisonment on probation .

The level crossing was closed after the accident.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ritzau, p. 30, speaks of 30 m; Rothe, p. 5, from 15 m.
  2. ↑ A list of names of the dead can be found in Rothe, p. 6, note 3.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rothe, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Rothe, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Ritzau, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Ritzau, p. 30; Rothe, p. 5.
  5. ^ Robert Bopp: 100 years of the Pasing - Herrsching railway line. From the Royal Bavarian Local Railway to the S-Bahn line 5 . Germering 2003, ISBN 3-00-011372-X , p. 106 .
  6. ↑ Rothe, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Ritzau, p. 31; Rothe, p. 7f.
  8. ↑ Arno Berleb, Otto Gleixner: The station Seefeld-Hechendorf. An exhibition by the Seefeld community on the occasion of the "100 years of Pasing - Herrsching railroad" anniversary . Seefeld 2003, p. 71 .


Coordinates: 48 ° 1 ′ 5.9 ″  N , 11 ° 10 ′ 22.2 ″  E