Railway accident in Mainz

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In the Mainz railway accident on October 1, 1924, two trains collided in a rear-end collision in the Mainz tunnel . 14 people died.

Starting position

It was the time of the Franco-Belgian Allied occupation of the Rhineland , which also affected Mainz . The occupying power used its own field railroaders in order to be able to maintain rail operations against the resistance of German railroaders. In the so-called Regiebetrieb the authority to issue instructions over rail traffic lay with the occupying troops. They also intervened massively in the safety systems of the railways . For example, the field railroaders had put the signal-dependent section block in the Mainz tunnel out of action due to a signal disruption in the course of operations .

The D 670 from Cologne to Basel had the main station of Mainz left around 12:30 pm and was moved into the Mainzer tunnel. There was an emergency brake there . The tunnel was smoky, the air quality and visibility poor. Under these difficult circumstances, the train crew started looking for the cause of the emergency braking.

In the same direction and at a scheduled interval of 5 minutes, the P 682 should follow from Mainz to Worms Hauptbahnhof .

the accident

Although the signal-dependent block of the route was overridden, the response of the passage of the first train at the next block was not waited for, but the following train was forwarded at the scheduled interval. This drove into the tunnel on the express train.

consequences

14 people died and many more were injured. The rescue work turned out to be difficult because of the heavy smoke development. Some of the rescue teams, French military personnel, the Mainz fire department and German paramedics, had to wear gas masks.

literature

  • Klaus Kemp: Regiebahn. Reparations, occupation, war against the Ruhr, Reichsbahn. The railways in the Rhineland and the Ruhr area 1918–1930 . EK-Verlag , Freiburg 2016. ISBN 978-3-8446-6404-1 , p. 299.
  • Hans Joachim Ritzau : Railway disasters in Germany. Splinters of German history . Vol. 1: Landsberg-Pürgen 1979, p. 73.
  • Otto Westermann: Young Railway in 2000-year-old golden Mainz. From the good and bad days of the Mainz Railway . Federal Railway Directorate Mainz, Mainz undated [after 1962].

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kemp correctly names this date (see also the discussion page). There are different statements in the literature.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ritzau: Railway disasters .
  2. ↑ Westermann, p. 50.
  3. ↑ Ritzau, Kemp.
  4. ↑ Westermann, p. 50f.

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 38.2 "  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 4.6"  E