Sanry-sur-Nied railway accident

In the railway accident in Sanry-sur-Nied , early in the morning on August 24, 1951, an express train ran into a train that was not scheduled to stop there at the station in Sanry-sur-Nied , killing 21 people.

Starting position

The night express train D 1118 was en route from Frankfurt am Main to Paris . At the end of the train he drove a baggage or rail mail car . Numerous members of the US occupation forces also traveled on the train . The Frankfurt train was immediately followed at Metz by the express train from Basel to Calais on the same route .

the accident

As a result of a mistake by an employee in the signal box , an ambiguous signal setting or because he found that there was obviously something wrong with the signals, the engine driver of the train coming from Frankfurt stopped at the station in Sanry-sur-Nied . Knowing that the express train from Basel to Calais was immediately following him, he ran back to lay out crackers to warn the next train. But he was only 250 meters away when the train to Calais met him. At about 100 km / h it hit the stationary train. Its baggage or rail mail car at the end of the train was smashed and the two passenger cars lined up in front of it were pushed onto one another. As a result, a fire could have broken out. In any case, several burned injuries are reported.

consequences

21 people died, four of them US military personnel. At least 35 people were injured. The US Air Force sent two transport planes from Frankfurt am Main Airport to Verdun to fly out the dead and injured. The 18 US casualties were flown to Neubiberg near Munich and taken from there to a military hospital. No Germans are said to have been among the dead. Locomotive staff and passengers on the train to Calais were unharmed.

literature

• AP : Serious train accident near Metz - 20 dead . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of August 25, 1951, p. 1.
• dpa : The express train Frankfurt - Paris rammed . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 25, 1951, p. 1.
• Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .

Remarks

1. ↑ Semmens, p. 147, gives the fantasy name “Sary-sur-Sud” as the scene of the accident.
2. ↑ You probably landed at Verdun-Le Rozelier Airport , then an American air force base.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ dpa: The express train .
2. ^ Deutsche Bundesbahn : Official course book . Western Germany. Summer timetable May 20 - October 6, 1951 . Bielefeld 1951, p. 13: timetable table N (Paris – Frankfurt / Cologne).
3. ↑ Semmens, p. 147; dpa: The express train .
4. ↑ AP: Serious train accident , names both.
5. ↑ Semmens, p. 147; dpa: The express train .
6. ↑ So: Semmens, p. 147. The reports immediately after the accident (dpa: The express train ; AP: Severe train accident ) assume that there was a signal failure.
7. ^ So: dpa: The express train .
8. ↑ AP: Serious train accident
9. ↑ dpa: The express train .
10. ↑ Semmens, p. 147.
11. ↑ AP: Serious train accident
12. ↑ Semmens, p. 147.
13. ^ So: dpa: The express train ; AP: Serious train accident names the number of 40 injured.
14. ↑ AP: Serious train accident
15. ↑ dpa: The express train .