Kiesen railway accident
In the Kiesen railway accident on September 23, 1941, a high-speed express train collided with a passenger train near Kiesen , which had to wait because of a construction site to continue. 11 people died.
the accident
That of tuna coming fast train 307 was the arrival of a passenger train into gravels Bern to be seen because the section Kiesen Wichtrach the route Bern-Thun was only one lane open to traffic because of track work. Through a misunderstanding the express free travel was permitted so that it at a speed of 80 to 90 km / h the front of the entry signal waiting in gravels passenger train collided. The thick fog prevented the engine driver of the express train from seeing the waiting passenger train and being able to initiate braking. As a result of the force of the impact, the express train locomotive Ae 3/6 I 10704, the multiple unit CFe 4/5 786 of the BLS , several passenger cars, a baggage car and a mail car were severely damaged or partly completely smashed. Eleven people lost their lives in this train accident, 14 people were injured, some of them seriously. Among the dead were some workers busy with plugs who were crushed by overturning wagons.
consequences
The scene of the accident was confused about 200 meters away. The locomotive of the express train practically completely destroyed the wooden box of the railcar. The roof of the locomotive was thrown 15 meters away. The engine driver apparently wanted to jump off, but came to rest under the following second class cars and was crushed. The mail car penetrated halfway into the first / second class car, with only the roof remaining of the mail car. Only the floor and two wheels of one of the passenger train cars were visible. The railway track was torn out to a length of 20 meters.
The rescue workers were supported by a large military unit with trucks . The injured were taken to the surrounding hospitals in Thun, Oberdiessbach and Münsingen . An SBB auxiliary car was quickly on the spot so that the clean-up work could begin immediately.
The two locomotives involved in the accident, the SBB Ae 3/6 I and the BLS railcar, were rebuilt after the accident. The railcar with the new designation Fe 4/5 was given a steel car body , whereby the passenger compartments were dispensed with in favor of a large luggage compartment.
Cause of accident
The investigation revealed that the station officials in gravels of the temporarily arranged single track operation had been assigned as a reinforcement of the station gravels, the rules governing the crossing sverlegung had not noticed. The passenger train that left Wichtrach at 8.50 a.m. was delayed and had to stop in Kiesen in front of the closed entry signal. The officer in charge believed that the passenger train was still in Wichtrach and that he had moved the train crossing from Kiesen to Wichtrach by telephone. So he opened the exit signal to Wichtrach for the approaching express train .
literature
- Serious railway accident on the Bern – Thun line. (PDF; 283 kB) In: Liechtensteiner Volksblatt. September 25, 1941, p. 3 , accessed October 30, 2013 .
- Bruno Lämmli: Lötschbergbahn CFe 4/5 No. 721–725 and 786. In service. Retrieved October 30, 2013 .
- Peter Lüthi, Emil Bohnenblust: Shock in Wichtrach: 11 dead in a railway accident. (PDF; 83 kB) History and stories in the village. In: Drachenpost No. 5. Wichtrach municipality, September 2005, p. 9 , accessed on October 30, 2013 .
- Ascanio Schneider u. Armin Masé: Disasters on the rails. Railway accidents, their causes and consequences . Zurich 1968, pp. 164–172.
Coordinates: 46 ° 49 '17.1 " N , 7 ° 34' 28.9" E ; CH1903: six hundred and ten thousand three hundred eighty-two / 185595