Schrozberg railway accident

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The Schrozberg railway accident was a head-on collision between two passenger trains on the Crailsheim – Königshofen railway north of Schrozberg station on June 11, 2003, which was ultimately based on an incorrectly carried out evacuation test by the dispatcher in Schrozberg. Six people died and 25 others were injured.

Starting position

The Crailsheim – Königshofen line is a single-track , non-electrified line . A section between the train stations Schrozberg and Niederstetten runs on a dam.

When the freight train IRC 52245 coming from Aschaffenburg and traveling in the direction of Crailsheim to Nuremberg passed through Niederstetten station , there was a malfunction on a distant signal repeater . As a result, the route in the station did not automatically disappear . The dispatcher wrongly assumed a disturbed level crossing as the cause. Since the level crossing is included in the non-automatic route block , it now supposedly had to bridge it. He then agreed with his colleague in Schrozberg to drive with a substitute signal (Zs1) and introduced feedback . Subsequently, it turned out that there was no security-relevant malfunction. If the dispatcher in Niederstetten had recognized this in time, he would have cleared the blocked route by hand and the following regional express (RE) 19 533 would have been able to leave on the normal main signal with a fully functional block of the route. This would most likely have avoided the accident .

The Regional Express (RE) 19533, of Aschaffenburg according Crailsheim road, consisted of a diesel railcars the 628 series . The regional express 19 534 to Wertheim was on the way in the opposite direction , a classic carriage train with four passenger cars , hauled by the 218 285 diesel locomotive . A total of 31 passengers traveled on both trains ; a family of five traveled with their bicycles in the bicycle compartment of the railcar, which is located directly behind the driver's cab of the vehicle. The train crossing was planned in Schrozberg. The RE 19 533 had scheduled departure in Schrozberg at 11:59 in the direction of Crailsheim. The RE 19 534 in the direction of Niederstetten and Wertheim two minutes later, at 12.01 p.m., i.e. after the train from Aschaffenburg has arrived.

Accident

The dispatcher in Niederstetten had the RE 19 534, which was six minutes late, exit towards Schrozberg at a replacement signal at around 11:55 a.m. As a result, there is no automatic pre- blocking and thus blocking of the track section in front of the train for trains that follow and, thanks to the permit in Niederstetten, for journeys from the opposite direction. Due to an error in the design of the interlocking , this could not be compensated manually either. This weakness has - as the Federal Railway Authority finds in its report with astonishment - apparently since the installation of the signal box by the irregular behavior of the dispatchers.

The dispatcher from Niederstetten now tried to give permission for the section to Schrozberg, but this initially failed because it will only be possible when the route in the station is closed. The dispatcher finally succeeded in doing this shortly afterwards. The signal box had saved the order to issue a permit to Schrozberg and now carried it out automatically. This enabled Schrozberg station to have access to the section of the route in which the RE 19 534 was moving towards it.

Shortly before, the 26-year-old dispatcher in Schrozberg had mistaken the IRC 52245 freight train coming from Niederstetten in the direction of Crailsheim for the RE 19 533 and reported it back to Niederstetten (with the wrong train number). Now both dispatchers assumed that the route between Schrozberg and Niederstetten was free. The Ellwangen Regional Court later found that the dispatcher had been overwhelmed. But he had around 15 months of experience as a dispatcher in Schrozberg and the neighboring Blaufelden train station . He allowed the regional express 19 534 to exit in the direction of Niederstetten, also on a substitute signal, although the delayed return train had not yet arrived, as Niederstetten station had given it permission.

The two trains collided at 12:03 on a railway embankment in a blind curve at kilometer 30.360 and h a speed of 60 km / and 83 km / h. Rapid braking by the driver of the RE 19 533 , which was initiated shortly before the collision, was no longer effective. Since the railcar drove ahead with the control car, the front driver's cab and bicycle compartment were squeezed together between the much heavier locomotive of the oncoming train and the railcar's own engine part. The railcar derailed and tipped sideways. The diesel locomotive was pushed out of the track to the right and fell eight meters down the embankment, where it remained about 30 meters from the track. One of the cars derailed.

consequences

Six people died in the collision, a mother with her three children on the way back from a bike trip and the two train drivers. 25 other people were injured.

Rescue workers, the police and the Federal Border Police were on site with a large number. 208 police officers were on duty alone. The Neckarsulm fire brigade was on site with an emergency chaplain and a command vehicle , the German Red Cross with an emergency doctor and several ambulances . Injured were in the hospitals of Künzelsau , Crailsheim , Schwäbisch Hall and Bad Mergentheim brought.

The public prosecutor's office in Ellwangen brought charges against the two dispatchers involved. It was based on negligent homicide in six cases, bodily harm and negligent endangerment of rail traffic . According to the indictment, technical and human failure was the cause of the accident. According to the prosecutor , the dispatcher in Schrozberg had a "complete dropout". The collision was inevitable for the two engine drivers.

On June 15, 2005, the Ellwangen Regional Court announced the judgment . The court imposed a suspended sentence of one year and six months against the dispatcher in Schrozberg, and a fine of 4,800 euros was imposed on the dispatcher in Niederstetten .

literature

  • Thomas Baumann: Train accident on June 11, 2003 in Schrozberg . In: Brandhilfe 51 (2004), pp. 18-23.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ collision of regional express trains (RE) 19533 and 19534 on the route Crailsheim - Bad Mergentheim on 11/06/2003. (PDF; 1.05 MB) Investigation report. Federal Railway Office , December 8, 2003, p. 58 , accessed April 18, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Barrier disorder with tragic consequences . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 8–9 / 2003, p. 339. ISSN  1421-2811
  3. ↑ collision of regional express trains (RE) 19533 and 19534 on the route Crailsheim - Bad Mergentheim on 11/06/2003. (PDF; 1.05 MB) Investigation report. Federal Railway Office , December 8, 2003, accessed April 18, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Collision in BW, RE 19533 and RE 19534. Eisenbahnforum.de, accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Six dead in a serious train accident - FF Neckarsulm at the scene. In: Heilbronn voice . June 11, 2003, archived from the original on January 17, 2016 ; accessed on April 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Collision of the regional express trains (RE) 19533 and 19534 on the Crailsheim - Bad Mergentheim route on June 11, 2003. (PDF; 1.05 MB) Investigation report. Federal Railway Office , December 8, 2003, p. 27 , accessed April 18, 2020 .
  7. ↑ collision of regional express trains (RE) 19533 and 19534 on the route Crailsheim - Bad Mergentheim on 11/06/2003. (PDF; 1.05 MB) Investigation report. Federal Railway Office , December 8, 2003, p. 40 , accessed April 18, 2020 .
  8. ↑ collision of regional express trains (RE) 19533 and 19534 on the route Crailsheim - Bad Mergentheim on 11/06/2003. (PDF; 1.05 MB) Investigation report. Federal Railway Office , December 8, 2003, pp. 50, 52 , accessed April 18, 2020 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 40.4 "  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 34.4"  E