Railway accident at Schönebeck (1996)

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The railway accident at Schönebeck was the derailment of a freight train with a subsequent explosion and fire disaster near Schönebeck (Elbe) on June 1, 1996. 18 people were injured as a result. It was one of the biggest accidents involving dangerous goods on German railways.

Starting position

A train , consisting of a locomotive and 18 tank cars , loaded with vinyl chloride , was on the way on the electrified Magdeburg – Leipzig line . Behind the Schönebeck train station , the route was designed in such a way that it had to change from track 3 to track 1 via a switch . The railway line was surrounded by allotments here .

the accident

When driving over the switch, the rear bogie of the sixth car derailed at around 5.30 p.m. The bogie ripped off and between the sixth and seventh car it came to the train separation . The locomotive rolled his front car while on, but came because due to the separation of the brake hoses , the emergency brake is triggered immediately after 400 meters to a halt.

The following wagons of the train derailed, fell into the neighboring track and bored into the track bed . The rear cars climbed on to the cars in front. The third from last car touched the overhead contact line . This led to the explosion of the cargo and the tank car. A roller of fire rolled over the neighboring allotments. Another four cars caught fire and a 600 to 800 meter high column of smoke formed over the accident site.

consequences

The local volunteer fire brigade initially focused on rescuing people from the allotment gardens. Since she did not know what was burning, it was also not clear how it could be extinguished. The scene of the accident was confusing due to the smoke. At first it was impossible to determine how many cars had derailed and how many were on fire. A requested helicopter flew aerial reconnaissance. Only then did it become known that the front part of the train with the locomotive was on the line in front of the accident site. Only more than 1½ hours after the accident was the engine driver asked about the accompanying documents. The waybill showed that all of the train's cars were loaded with vinyl chloride.

The BASF plant fire brigade in Ludwigshafen learned of the accident from radio reports , reached the Schönebeck volunteer fire brigade by phone and then ordered specialists from their branch in Schwarzheide to the accident site. She also went there herself with fire trucks .

The next morning around 7:30 a.m., all sources of the fire were extinguished. However, it took until June 16 before all vinyl chloride was removed from the tank wagons and these were degassed and depressurized.

The official determination of the cause of the accident by the Federal Railway Authority was a worn switch, which had a widening of the track, in conjunction with the liquid cargo of the tank wagons, in which no baffles were built, that swayed over the switches during the S-shaped journey . The Federal Ministry of Transport found significant defects in 11 of the 18 tank wagons. The public prosecutor closed the preliminary investigation .

Web links

literature

  • Erich Preuss: Railway accidents at Deutsche Bahn. Causes - Background - Consequences. Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-613-71229-6 , pp. 132-135.

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 44.8 "  N , 11 ° 44 ′ 37"  E