Dahlerau railway accident

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial cross and graves for the victims at the municipal cemetery in Radevormwald, 2004

In the Dahlerau railway accident on May 27, 1971, two trains collided on the Wuppertal Railway near Dahlerau , a district of Radevormwald . 46 people died, including 41 students from the Radevormwalder Geschwister-Scholl-Schule . It was the railway accident with the most fatalities of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (the railway accident in Eschede affects the successor company Deutsche Bahn ).

Starting position

Class 795 - "rail bus" similar to the railcar that crashed
Accident site, 2009

On the evening of May 27, 1971, shortly after 9 p.m., a special train with the train number Eto 42227 ran the single-track railway line Wuppertal-Oberbarmen-Radevormwald ( Wuppertalbahn ). It consisted of the Uerdingen rail bus with the number 795 375-5 and a sidecar with the number 995 325-8. There were a total of 71 passengers on the train. Most of them belonged to a grade of the Radevormwald secondary school on a graduation trip or were teachers and accompanying persons. The special train was about 30 minutes late at the time of the accident. The delay made it necessary to plan a train crossing with a freight train that was scheduled to run in the opposite direction.

The train crossing was laid to Dahlerau by telephone agreement of the dispatchers from Beyenburg and Dahlerau.

The freight train Ng 16856 ran the route in the opposite direction . It was pulled by a DB class 212 locomotive. He was allowed to drive up to the stop signal (Ne 5, " H-sign ") placed on the platform when the entrance signal of the Dahlerau station showed "Fahrt" (Hp 1) and had to stop there. The freight train also slowly entered the station in accordance with the regulations. This process was absolutely necessary because the stations on this branch line did not have exit signals at that time . In this case, the operational process was also marked in the book timetable by an "H" in the arrival column. However, the dispatcher was able to cancel this compulsory stop by signaling the drive-through order (Zp 9) to the approaching train . This procedure was common for the scheduled freight train, since at this time there were no scheduled train crossings.

The locomotive staff of the freight train Ng 16856 was not informed about the unscheduled train crossing in Dahlerau because no train crossing was noted in the duty roster. If the special train had arrived on schedule in Radevormwald, 12.3 kilometers away from Dahlerau, without a delay of 30 minutes, there would have been no train crossing between the special train and the freight train. It was not necessary to inform the locomotive staff about the train crossing, as the regulations regarding the passage or onward journey were clear and compliance with them was to be expected.

Both trains were not equipped with radiotelephony , so communication between track and locomotive personnel was only possible using signals and track telephones. If the entry signal from Dahlerau had continued to show Hp 0 , the driver of the freight train would have contacted the dispatcher via a plug-in telephone.

Accident occurrences

The accident happened could never be safely cleared up: driver and Beimann the freight train gave later testified that on this evening the specified in the book timetable an "H" forced stop has been canceled by the command bar (Zp 9), not at the H-shape ( Ne 5) had to be stopped and thus the free passage without stopping was signaled. The dispatcher, on the other hand, reported that he had given an additional stop signal with a red panel on the command staff , which was not usual in the operational process. An emergency stop signal (Sh 3) was not given by the dispatcher to the slow moving local goods train.

The dispatcher, who, according to his own statement, had tried in vain to reach the locomotive on foot, called Beyenburg, five kilometers away, to have the special train stopped there. However, the rail bus had already moved on towards Dahlerau. Both trains were now on the same track and were running towards each other without any signals between them that could have stopped them. Since the locomotive crew could not be reached by radio, the accident could no longer be prevented. About 800 meters behind the Dahlerau station, the two trains collided behind a curve. The freight locomotive was five times heavier and about a meter higher than the two-part rail bus. The rail bus was pushed back 100 meters, the motor vehicle compressed to about 1/3 of its length.

consequences

41 students, two teachers, a mother and two railway officials died. 25 people suffered mostly serious injuries. One student survived the accident unharmed.

After he could no longer prevent the collision, the dispatcher from Dahlerau had alerted the rescue control center before the collision . From the Radevormwalder city center and from the cities of Wuppertal , Remscheid and Solingen came ambulances , fire brigade and police quickly to the scene. The rescue work was made more difficult by the difficult-to-walk hillside location between the road and the Wupper . In addition, there were parents who had found out about the accident while waiting at the Radevormwald train station and were now looking for their children, and countless onlookers who had been lured by the horns of the emergency vehicles. The rescuers were able to provide the necessary help to many injured people in good time, so 25 people survived despite serious injuries. The dead were taken to the Bredderstrasse gym for identification. After securing evidence at the scene of the accident, the wreck of the rail bus was scrapped. The freight train's locomotive has been repaired. It remained in DB's portfolio until 2002 and was then used by Alstom until 2010 .

The investigation into the cause of the accident lasted more than a year. However, the course of events could not be adequately reconstructed because the station's dispatcher died shortly after the incident in a car accident that was proven to be not his own fault.

As a consequence of the accident, it was forbidden to continue using the red covers on the command posts in order to avoid confusion. Another consequence was that trains that had a train crossing in a station without exit signals had to wait in front of the entry signal until the opposing train had come to a stop at the H-board in the station. The equipment with train radio has now also been promoted at the Deutsche Bundesbahn and a simplified section block for branch lines has been developed.

funeral

The majority of the dead students were buried in the communal cemetery in Radevormwald in a common grave field. Around 10,000 people attended the funeral on June 2, 1971, including Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt , Federal Transport Minister Georg Leber and Federal Council President Hans Koschnick . Shops in Radevormwald remained closed and condolences were displayed in many shop windows . Planned events were canceled, taxis had mourning ribbons , and the fire brigade was on guard duty . Expressions of condolences and funeral wreaths came not only from the Federal Railways and surrounding cities, but also from France and England. On the nearby railway line, train traffic was suspended at the time of the funeral. An uncle of a deceased child collapsed from the high temperatures in the cemetery and died of a heart attack .

A stone memorial with the inscription: "Spirit come from the four winds and breathe over these dead so that they may come to life again" ( Vision of Ezekiel , Ez. 37,9) was created by the sculptor Hans Gerhard Biermann and placed next to the rows of graves.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Detailed information on vehicle 795 375-5. In: Roter-brummer.de. Retrieved December 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Detailed information on vehicle 995 325-8. In: Roter-brummer.de. Retrieved December 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Kräwinkel-Radevormwald-Halver. Section The Dahlerau train accident . ADFV Kreisverband Wuppertal / Solingen, accessed on December 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Signal Ne5 "H panel". In: tf-ausbildung.de
  5. ↑ 46 dead in train accident. In: zeit.de , November 21, 2012, accessed on February 11, 2018.
  6. ↑ Book timetable example and further information about the route .
  7. ↑ Zp9 departure command
  8. ↑ Detailed description of the operational processes in Dahlerau and the train accident .
  9. ↑ 212 030-1 detail page
  10. ↑ 212 030-1. Detail page at "Loks aus Kiel" with photos

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 36 ″  N , 7 ° 19 ′ 21 ″  E