Railway accident in Holthusen

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The railway accident in Holthusen was the collision of an express train with a shunting locomotive in the Holthusen station on December 31, 1992 due to a dispatcher error.

Holthusen station. From back to front: tracks 1–4 and the level crossing with gates.

Starting position

Infrastructure

At that time, Holthusen station had platform tracks 1-4 and siding 5 on the other side of track 1. Tracks 2 and 3 were also the through tracks of the double- track Ludwigslust – Wismar railway line , tracks 1 and 4 the associated overtaking tracks. The extension of track 1 was also the exit for the then single-track railway line Hagenow Land – Schwerin - ( Hamburg ) towards Hagenow Land . There were two mechanical interlockings with main light signals and some switches with electric drives. Routes were only available for train journeys. Passages to and from the single-track line to Hagenow Land were only permitted via track 2 with two branching points.

business

In the station Holthusen was ranked : A locomotive of the series 346 (then: Series 106), staffed by two employees had from the siding to a storage tank a tank car pulled into the siding 5 and should it now be avoided on a different track order on his at the other end.

Before that happened, the E 3756 passed through the station from Schwerin towards Hagenow via platform 2 at 7:16 a.m. , at the end of the station the change from there to platform 1 and then the exit towards Hagenow Land to the south .

The express train D 2731, pulled by the locomotive 143 620 , had left Schwerin Hauptbahnhof in a southerly direction. He was with about 50 travelers on the journey from Rostock to Leipzig and was approaching the Holthusen station from the north.

the accident

After the express train had passed through, the dispatcher forgot to set the switch connection from track 2 to track 1 back to the basic position (straight position) before agreeing to the shunting run. Since he had mainly worked in the SED district leadership in the previous years, he had little routine. It was only his tenth independent shift. Since no shunting route and no destination for the change of direction when driving around the freight wagon had been agreed between the shunting staff and the dispatcher, the wagon also used the non-deferred switch connection from track 1 to track 2. The shunting staff was irritated that the route to bypass the The freight wagon did not use track 1 closest to the freight wagon, but that it was directed to track 2. However, since the destination (platform 5 east side) could be reached via both routes, both directly via platform 1 and initially via platform 2 and from there back to platform 1, this detour did not initially arouse suspicion. The shunting locomotive then stopped on track 2 in front of the switch, which could have steered it back to track 1, from which only the entrance to track 5 was possible, where the freight car, the target of the shunting movement, was. However, the switch was set straight ahead and not back to track 1 on the left.

The mistake that the location of the switch connection from the previous passage of the express train still existed and that the shunting locomotive was unintentionally steered into track 2 instead of remaining on track 1, went unnoticed by the dispatcher. Although he had noticed that the shunting locomotive had driven further than he expected, he did not notice that it was on through track 2 instead of overtaking track 1. Rather, he meant that she was still on track 1 and set the route for the D 2731 on through track 2 in the direction of Ludwigslust. Now he should have carried out a route check before he allowed the D 2731 to pass through the station. If this took place, he did not recognize that the shunting locomotive was blocking track 2. Next he had the D train to the next station log and next to the reception building located barrier use. When that was all done, he gave the signal to the shunting department to move back to the freight car. Only now did he discover that the shunting locomotive was not pulling up from track 1 but on track 2 in the direction of his signal box. The dispatcher immediately asked the two men to leave their locomotive and get to safety from the passing train, which they succeeded. The express train had already approached so closely that it could not be stopped by the train radio or by resetting the entry signal indicating "travel free" .

The engine driver of the express train was the entry signal "drive at top speed" in the approach to the station Holthusen. This was also a pre-signaling for the exit signal, at which 120 km / h was also permitted. After recognizing the shunting locomotive in front of him on the track, there was hardly any braking distance left. At around 100 km / h, the express train's locomotive collided with the shunting locomotive at 7:23 a.m. The force of the impact was so great that it was swept away about 100 m. Both locomotives wedged together.

consequences

The driver of the express train could only be recovered dead from the ruins of the driver's cab . A traveler as well as two railway workers from the train crew and a Mitropa employee were seriously injured and had to be flown to the Schwerin Clinic by rescue helicopter . Five other people were slightly injured. The property damage amounted to more than 1 million German marks .

In the subsequent criminal proceedings before the Schwerin District Court , the dispatcher was sentenced to a suspended fine on June 21, 1994. The shunting staff was not blamed. It could have prevented the accident by asking, but it did not breach its duty because the route via platform 1 had not been agreed. The local driving regulations stipulated that the route had to be indicated to the “required extent”. Since both routes, both directly via platform 1 and initially via platform 2 and from there back to platform 1, led to the destination (platform 5 east side), this demand did not arise without further ado.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: here .

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 '16 "  N , 11 ° 21' 52.6"  E