Zibo railway accident

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The Zibo railway accident (胶济 铁路 特别 重大 交通事故) was a train derailment on April 28, 2008 near Zibo in Shandong Province , China , with a subsequent collision when a second train drove into the scene of the accident. 72 people died.

Sketch of the scene of the accident

Starting position

The T 195 express train was on the Shantung Railway from Beijing to Qingdao with around 1200 passengers . The Schantung Railway is a double- track main line . The route was launched in the area of a construction site near Zibo via an auxiliary track, was h for a speed limit of 80 km /.

A second passenger train , No. 5034, from Yantai to Xuzhou was on the same route in the opposite direction. About 1200 people also traveled in it.

At around 2:30 a.m., a train driver from the line informed the dispatcher in Jinan , 70 km west of the subsequent accident site , that the corresponding point on the track had been signaled with a speed limit of 80 km / h , the driver's cab signals in the locomotive , which included the timetable default, but allowed 120 km / h display. Since this could not be corrected immediately in the electronics, the train control center tried to reach all engine drivers and draw their attention to the problem. Inquiries from the train drivers who had driven into the danger zone showed that the driver's cab signaling indicated a permitted speed of up to 145 km / h. The engine driver of the T 195 was also spoken to by radio and confirmed that he knew the slow speed command. At the same time, the train control center asked him to drive quickly because the train was delayed.

the accident

Nevertheless, the engine driver of the T 195 drove into the diversion at 130 km / h instead of the prescribed 80 km / h. The cars 10 to 18 of the train derailed at 4:38 AM due to excessive speed and tipped on its side. In the process, wagons also got into the clearance profile of the track in the opposite direction. Cars 1 to 9, on the other hand, remained on the track.

At that moment, train no. 5034 was approaching from the opposite direction at the prescribed speed of 80 km / h. When the engine drivers noticed the crashed train in front of them, it was too late to bring their own train to a stop. He drove into the crashed express train at 4:41 a.m. 14 passenger cars on both trains were partially badly damaged. The first three wagons of train No. 5034 derailed and fell into a ditch.

consequences

72 people died and 416 were injured, most of them seriously.

The survivors' phone calls on their cell phones caused the local telephone network to temporarily collapse.

The investigation revealed that 37 people were jointly responsible for the accident , and criminal proceedings were initiated against seven. The chief of the railway administration in Jinan was sacked, as was the highest-ranking cadre of the Chinese Communist Party there .

Web links

Coordinates: 36 ° 41 ′ 35 ″  N , 117 ° 46 ′ 53 ″  E