Planina railway accident
In the railway accident Planina collided on September 24, 1917. the station Planina on the Austrian Southern Railway runaway car a Militärzugs with a following freight train . 29 people died in the accident .
Starting position
The military train 858 ran the Südbahn in a northerly direction, this was followed by the freight train 812. The route climbs from the Rakek station to the Planina station.
Rakek the military train 858 was duly dispatched shortly after 2:00 am, the block location between two railway stations and from there to the next train station Planina been reports Service. The planned entry track there was free, but initially the entry signal showed "Halt" and the train came to a stop. The dispatcher from Planina arranged for the signal to be set to “Free travel” without knowing that the military train 858 was already waiting there.
In Rakek, the following freight train was also properly dispatched by the block attendant between the two stations. Since the section to Planina was not yet registered, it stopped the freight train at its block.
the accident
The locomotive driver of the military train 858 did not notice the "free movement" of the entry signal from Planina: He could not recognize the shape signal due to the darkness and because of a carelessly hung lamp on the signal it still showed him a red light.
The block attendant passed the information that train 812 was now with him to Planina station. The dispatcher there, who was still waiting for the 858 military train, considered this - without asking - to have mixed up the train numbers and asked the block attendant to let the train continue. The freight train passed the distant signal to the entry signal from Planina, which showed "await travel free". Only then did he recognize the end- of- train signal from the military train in front of him. He released an emergency brake and gave warning whistles. The engine driver of the 858 military train understood the situation immediately and tried to accelerate his train as quickly as possible. But it happened so violently that the train's couplings broke in three places. The last part of the train, a group of three demolished wagons, now rolled downhill towards the freight train. The collision occurred at 2:17 a.m. between the runaway wagons and the freight train. The runaway wagons, the locomotive of the freight train and its first six wagons were destroyed.
consequences
29 people - 27 soldiers and two railway workers - died in the accident, and 51 people were also injured.
literature
- Ludwig Stockert : Railway accidents (new episode) - Another contribution to railway operations theory . Berlin 1920, No. 52.
Coordinates: 45 ° 51'25.4 " N , 14 ° 16'46.3" O