Nancy railway accident

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In the Nancy railway accident on November 6, 2002, twelve people died when a sleeping car caught fire.

Starting position

The SNCF night train 261 from Paris to Vienna was occupied by around 150 passengers . Among other things , he drove a DB AutoZug GmbH sleeping car equipped with air conditioning to Munich . The car was occupied by 21 passengers. It was built in 1964, completely revised in 1999 and revised in 2001. Nevertheless, it contained wooden fittings, but no fire or smoke alarms . Reports produced later pointed to safety deficiencies: A second fire extinguisher was missing and the references to the emergency hammers for breaking the windows were criticized as inadequate. In addition, the outside doors of the car were locked to make robberies impossible. This is possible under the rules of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and was a widespread practice. In addition, the doors that close the side corridor of the passenger car , along the individual compartments, to the entry area, were fitted with a security lock. This measure was introduced following a decision by the former night train operator TEN after the murder of a Belgian sleeper-car attendant.

The car ran directly behind the SNCF locomotive at the head of the train. A prescribed adapter cable on the locomotive was missing. As a result, communication between the cars and the engine driver was not possible. The adapter would have linked the French and German communication systems and enabled train and engine drivers to talk to each other.

the accident

The sleeper car attendant put a plastic travel bag on a stove top because there was nowhere else in the small service compartment and hung clothes over it without realizing the stove was on. Then he left the compartment and fell asleep on his bunk in the aisle of the sleeping car. In the meantime, the bag and the clothes in the service compartment caught fire. The air conditioning made the smoke spread very quickly throughout the car. Because of the cramped space in the sleeping car, even small amounts of smoke caused poisoning.

The conductor noticed a smell of fire at about 2:15 a.m. just before Nancy, but could not determine where it was coming from. The conductor initially assessed the situation completely wrong. Therefore, he did not immediately alert the passengers, but first the train driver of the SNCF . The travelers were surprised by the fire in their sleep. The conductor also failed to open the locked doors. The driver decided not to stop the train until Nancy station , because that was where quick rescue operations were most likely. Since the train driver and engine driver could not speak to each other due to the inadequate communication system, he triggered an emergency brake at the appropriate time . When the conductor got back to his car, the smoke was already so strong that he could no longer enter it. The train came to a stop about half a mile outside the station. The fire brigade was there minutes later, although a large number of people had already suffocated .

consequences

Twelve people suffered fatal smoke inhalation , including two children aged eight and twelve. In addition to Germans, the dead also included US Americans, a Russian couple, a Hungarian and a Greek woman . Another nine passengers were also injured. They had been able to free themselves through broken windows.

An ecumenical funeral service took place in Nancy on November 22, 2002 in the Protestant Church of St. Jean, at which the French Minister of Transport, Gilles de Robien , the German Minister of Transport Manfred Stolpe , the President of the SNCF Louis Gallois and Hartmut Mehdorn as representatives of the Germans Bahn participated.

Approximately eight and a half years after the accident , a court sentenced in Nancy the conductor because of negligent homicide and assault in the first instance to one year imprisonment on probation . Since there is corporate criminal law in France , the two railway companies involved were also charged, DB as the owner of the sleeping car, and SNCF for allowing it to be used - but both were initially acquitted. The SNCF tried in vain to have the proceedings closed due to formal deficiencies. The appeals court, however, sentenced DB AutoZug GmbH to a fine of 160,000 euros and increased the penalty for the conductor to two years' probation.

All sleeping cars of the same type were shut down. In the years that followed, all Deutsche Bahn sleeping cars received fire alarm systems; sleeping cars from foreign railway administrations that are on the road in Germany must also have such fire alarm systems or a specially trained fire watch must travel with them.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Tagesschau: Deutsche Bahn shuts down sleeping cars . ( Memento from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.de from August 30, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b c d Anna-Lena Roth: Deadly sleeping car fire: Deutsche Bahn has to pay 160,000 euros. In: Spiegel Online. June 5, 2011, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c Mark Oliver: Train fire kills 12 in east France. November 6, 2002, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  4. ^ Twelve dead in France train fire. In: bbc.co.uk. BBC News, November 6, 2002, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c DB at the start of the process because of the sleeping car accident in Nancy. In: bahnaktuell.net. March 14, 2011, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Tagesschau: Conductor sentenced to one year suspended sentence . ( Memento from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau .de from May 16, 2011
  7. ^ Fatal fire in the sleeping car: German conductor convicted in France. May 16, 2011, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  8. ↑ a b Annette Langer: Deadly sleeping car fire: train attendant sentenced to suspended sentence. In: Spiegel Online. May 16, 2011, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  9. ^ Memorial service for the victims of the Nancy disaster. November 22, 2002, accessed June 4, 2017 .
  10. ↑ a b c Court: DB is not complicit in the Nancy train accident. Deutsche Bahn AG, May 6, 2011, accessed on June 4, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Julia Jüttner: Paris-Munich train: Bahn rejects allegations of fire in sleeping cars. In: Spiegel Online. March 14, 2011, accessed June 4, 2017 .