Railway accident in Sion
The Sion railway accident was a head-on collision between a freight train and a special train on the Simplon line on June 24, 1968 between Sion station and the Saint-Léonard stop next to Brig . 12 people died.
Starting position
The distance between Sion and Saint-Léonard was at that time on 6 km only single track expanded. Saint-Léonard, at that time still a train station , was controlled by the dispatcher in Sion. The track was equipped with a track block .
The special train 51070 with 270 passengers was supposed to bring a group of members of the Reiden agricultural cooperative over the Lötschberg route to Lucerne . It consisted of a leading railcar of the type RBe 4/4 , but in which no passengers were sitting, followed by five cars of the second class . The train was given the exit in the direction of Saint-Léonard, as the signals in the opposite direction called for “stop” and thus secured the single-track section for special train 51070.
The express freight train 16845, a type Ae 3/5 locomotive that only pulled two freight cars and one passenger car , approached the Saint-Léonard station from the opposite direction . The train got there driveway on one of the two passing tracks, at the end of the exit- direction morals "stop" showed.
the accident
Instead of stopping, the freight train crossed the “stop” signal into the single-track route to Sion. This was possible because the engine driver had previously pressed the vigilance button on the distant signal and the main signal had no further train control. This prevented emergency braking . Why the engine driver acted like that could never be clarified. At 13:56 there was a head-on collision between the two trains, each with a speed of around 80 km / h. The front sections of the locomotive and the railcar, but also the first passenger coach, were half destroyed. The locomotive's tachograph was also so destroyed that it could no longer be evaluated.
consequences
12 people died, including both train drivers, and 103 others were injured.
As a result of this accident , after several years of testing between 1979 and 1989, additional track magnets were also installed on the main signals in the Integra-Signum train protection system, thus adding a stop evaluation to the train protection : When driving past a distant signal signaling "expect stop", the vigilance button must still be operated, on the other hand, when a main signal showing "stop" is passed, an emergency brake is triggered.
literature
- Ascanio Schneider u. Armin Masé: Disasters on the rails. Railway accidents, their causes and consequences . Zurich 1968, pp. 96-100.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ So: Schneider / Masé; SBB Historic: Info 24 reports 13 deaths.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Th. Palm: Signal boxes of the Swiss railways . Orell Füssli, Zurich, ISBN 3-280-01271-6 , p. 103 .
- ↑ Peter Winter: Reorientation in the areas of signaling, train protection and train radio at SBB . In: Swiss Railway Review 4/1985. ISSN 1022-7113 , pp. 124-128.