Aitrang railway accident
In the Aitrang railway accident on the evening of February 9, 1971, the Trans-Europ-Express Bavaria derailed near Aitrang , with a local train running in the rubble . 28 people died and 42 others were injured. The accident was the worst railway accident in which a TEE was ever involved.
Starting position
As of the winter timetable 1969/1970 the connection Munich - Zurich was operated as TEE 56 Bavaria with railcars of the Swiss-Dutch type RAm of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). The vehicle, built in 1957, had been retrofitted with the Indusi safety system for its use , but did not have a safety driving circuit (Sifa). This no longer complied with the safety regulations of the International Union of Railways UIC since January 1, 1971. The vehicle with the number 501 was in use on the day of the accident. At the end of the unit, the machine car drove ahead with the control car . It carried 53 passengers . Also on board were the engine driver , a technician, the train attendant and the staff of the dining car .
Coming from Kempten , Pto 2513, a type VT 98 rail bus , ran in the opposite direction as a passenger train in an easterly direction. His destination station was Aitrang.
At the time of the accident, both trains were traveling on the Allgäu Railway near what was then Aitrang station. A narrow S-curve adjoins the station to the west. This could only be driven through at 80 km / h. The primary purpose of this speed limit was to make the journey comfortable for the travelers. With pulled trains the overturning moment of the curve was 124 km / h. The fog was thick.
the accident
derailment
procedure
At 6:44 p.m. the TEE reached Aitrang station from the east. The dispatcher in Aitrang claims to have noticed sparks hitting brake blocks while driving past the machine car. In the Indusi records - which, however, took place with a time delay of two seconds - there was nothing to do with this. However, what was shown by traces on the wheelsets of the machine car was slowed down.
When the train entered the S-curve at around 125 km / h , the bogies of the leading cars, whose center of gravity was higher than that of the machine car, climbed on. The leading control car derailed in the curve at km 34.344 together with the following dining car. Both tilted to one side and came to rest in a creek bed on the track embankment, the following central aisle car turned sideways, the final motor car was dragged along and came to a stop on the opposite track, dug into the gravel .
root cause
One suspicion as to the cause of the accident is that a brake control valve was defective. Even before the accident, there had been problems with other Swiss RAm trains: the driver's brake valve in the control car, type Oerlikon, could not brake and the trains had to stop on the open route.
Hans Thoma from the Technical University of Karlsruhe , on the other hand, advocated the hypothesis that frozen condensation could have caused the compressed air brake to fail . However, this theory does not explain why the train was able to brake without problems shortly before at Kaufbeuren station , where there was also a speed limit of 80 km / h. The SBB denied that this could have been the cause of the accident.
A confusion of the locomotive driver's location due to the fog cannot be ruled out either, but this was considered extremely unlikely by colleagues and experts. A mistake in location could explain braking initiated too late and match the observations made by the dispatcher in Aitrang.
The autopsy of the engine driver's body revealed no evidence that he could have been unfit to drive at the moment of the accident or shortly before it. It was not possible to clarify why the brakes were insufficiently or too late.
Rear-end collision
The dispatcher at Aitrang station did not notice the derailment of the TEE directly, but he did notice an inexplicable occupancy message on both tracks in the track diagram of his track plan push button interlocking . The debris of the TEE ensured that both tracks reported an occupancy, which was also the case, because both tracks were blocked. The dispatcher immediately withdrew the entrance for the arriving rail bus from Kempten. But this was too late for the train driver of the rail bus. He could still brake his train to less than 40 km / h, but could no longer prevent the impact on the TEE power car. Two people died and six were injured.
consequences
Victims and damage
28 deaths including the two train drivers, 19 seriously and 23 slightly injured were the result. Among the dead was the actor and director Leonard Steckel . The high number of victims is also explained by the fact that the windows of the TEE multiple unit were not made of laminated glass and burst when derailed. The furniture in the dining car was also not firmly anchored to the floor and mirrors were made of normal glass. The property damage from the accident was put at 2.6 million DM .
Rescue work
Immediately after the accident, the residents of Aitrang started a major relief effort: there were more helpers on the spot than were needed. It turned out to be problematic that the TEE that crashed was a Swiss vehicle. The officials of the Deutsche Bundesbahn were not familiar with it and could not provide any information on how the rescue measures could be approached without endangering those trapped.
The TEE's control and seating cars were dismantled on the spot by an Augsburg company. The powered end car could be put back on the tracks and towed to Kempten (Allgäu) , then first came to Zurich and was scrapped in the Netherlands after two years .
The TEE “Bavaria” after the accident
Train traffic on this section of the Allgäu Railway was interrupted for a week. After that, operations - including that of the TEE "Bavaria" - were resumed, using a locomotive-hauled wagon train. This consisted of a German TEE car of the type Avmz 111 (compartment car) and an open-plan car of the type Apmz 121; an ARDmz 106 bar car was used as a dining car replacement. A Gasturbinenlok the 210 series came on the section Munich- Lindau used; Between Lindau and Zurich it was SBB Re 4/4 I , some of which had been given a logo since the mid-1960s and were later painted in TEE colors.
Memorial stone
In 2012 a memorial stone was erected near the site of the accident.
literature
- Hans Joachim Ritzau: Criteria of the rail , publishing house Zeit u. Eisenbahn, Landsberg-Pürgen 1978, ISBN 3-921304-19-9
- Hans Joachim Ritzau: From Siegelsdorf to Aitrang. The railway disaster as a symptom - a study of the history of traffic . Ritzau, Landsberg 1972.
- Bundesbahn accidents - before puzzles . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1971, p. 32-33 ( online ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 49.
- ↑ Merkblatt 641-2V, 2nd edition of October 1, 1969, No. 1,3,4.
- ↑ a b Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 50.
- ↑ Hans Thoma: The Aitrang railway accident and its teachings . In: Technische Rundschau 24 (1971).
- ^ Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 53.
- ↑ a b Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 47.
- ↑ a b Ritzau: Von Siegelsdorf , p. 51.
- ↑ Heiko Wolf: “You can't get the pictures out of your head”. In: Allgäuer Zeitung, February 9, 2021.
Coordinates: 47 ° 49 ′ 15.9 ″ N , 10 ° 32 ′ 6.8 ″ E