Railway accident in Langenweddingen

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In the railway accident Langenweddingen on July 6, 1967 came across the Magdeburg-Thale railway is a train of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the vicinity of at Magdeburg nearby village Langenweddingen at a level crossing with a tanker truck along which exploded . With 94 fatalities, this accident is considered to be the worst in the GDR , one of the worst in the history of the German railroad and one of the most serious accidents involving dangerous goods in Germany.

The burned out train involved in the accident

Starting position

View of the accident site

The scene of the accident was a restricted level crossing on what was then trunk road 81 . Several supply lines ran above the crossing, including a free-hanging Deutsche Post telephone cable . This had already had contact with one of the barrier booms several times in the past - an incident that was known to both the Post and the Bahn.

The visibility conditions at the level crossing were unfavorable for the respective road users: while dense vegetation obstructed the view from the road to the railway line, the crossing itself could not be seen from the railway line.

The P 852 passenger train approached this level crossing on its journey from Magdeburg to Thale at around 85 km / h. It was pulled by the steam locomotive 22 022 . A baggage car ran behind the locomotive, followed by a four-part unit of double-decker cars , then another baggage car and another four-part unit of double-decker cars. Around 250 travelers were on the train. The first car was reserved for 50 children who were traveling to a holiday camp near Thale.

On the street side approached from the north to the railroad crossing one with about 15,000 liters of light gasoline betankter Minol - tanker truck . He was on the way to the rubber works in Ballenstedt . A truck with a bus attachment and 34 travelers approached from the opposite direction .

the accident

Since P 852 is 8 o'clock at Einfahrsignal " ride freely approached" the station Langenweddingen who let dispatchers through the gatekeeper close the barriers. However, one of the barriers got caught in the drooping telephone cord, which had expanded greatly from the summer heat, and could not be properly closed. The gatekeeper tried to free the barrier from the cable by cranking it up and down several times, but he failed; the level crossing remained open. For his part, the dispatcher failed to take back the entrance signal. The crossing seemed free to road traffic in view of the high barriers, and the train crew seemed to be allowed to drive through the signal.

When the dispatcher saw the truck that had been converted into a bus , he ran to the window with a signal flag and was able to stop it. The tanker truck, which was also approaching, was in a blind spot for him and was therefore not noticed.

The driver of the train from the opposite direction, who was waiting in the station, recognized the situation and gave the emergency signal Sh 5 with the macro microphone of his locomotive . Because of the operating noises on the steam locomotive, the warning signals were not heard by the P 852 locomotive staff. It was not until 30 meters before the level crossing that one noticed that the barriers were not closed. Despite the immediate emergency braking , there was a collision with the tanker truck: the locomotive hit the truck with its right buffer and pulled the vehicle with it. The truck was thrown against the train, and numerous window panes were broken. The tank burst and the contents splashed into the first two double-decker cars and onto the station area. There was an immediate explosion that set off a large-scale fire. The fire developed temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius inside the car.

consequences

Immediate consequences

Care for injured children in Magdeburg

The number of fatalities was given by the authorities as 94, of which 44 were school children who were on their way from Magdeburg to a holiday camp in the Harz Mountains at the beginning of the holiday . 77 victims have already died at the scene of the accident. Their number increased in the days after the accident, because 17 more of the 54 seriously injured died from their injuries. The truck driver suffered only minor burns. He was thrown out of the vehicle in the collision and died as a result of the impact. The engine driver was seriously injured, the stoker suffered medium injuries. One of the victims was the teacher Werner Moritz , director of a polytechnic high school (POS) in Rogätz near the city of Wolmirstedt . While rescuing twelve students, he sustained severe burns, which he later succumbed to in hospital.

In the fire that followed the explosion , the main building and some auxiliary buildings at Langenweddingen train station were also destroyed. The station clock stopped at 8:06 a.m. The destroyed station building was later demolished and replaced by a new building, and the damaged signal box was repaired.

The volunteer fire department Langenweddingen met shortly thereafter, the fire department from Magdeburg at 08:32. Since there were no hydrants nearby, a water supply to the village pond first had to be built. When the extinguishing water finally arrived, it evaporated with a loud bang as it hit the scorching wreckage of the wagons. The heat of the fire initially prevented the rescue workers from advancing to a significant part of the victims trapped in the train. The wagons could only be entered with protective clothing . The fire was extinguished around 10 a.m.

Work-up

Memorial service and burial of the victims, July 11, 1967

The investigation revealed that there had been problems closing the barriers for several days because of the sagging telephone cable. The gatekeeper was therefore accused of not having arranged for any other safeguarding of the level crossing, and the head of the service for not having taken sufficient care of the disruption. The gatekeeper and the dispatcher were to imprisonment convicted of five years each.

Six months after the accident, new transport regulations for dangerous goods (TOG) were announced on December 28, 1967 , and came into force on March 1, 1968. The closing times for railway barriers were significantly extended throughout the GDR . Since then - even today - train journeys have only been permitted when the barriers are closed. External gatekeepers have to confirm the closed state of the barriers to the responsible dispatcher before he can set the main signals to "clear travel". From then on, buses and dangerous goods transporters also had to stop when the barriers were open before crossing the tracks. In addition, since then level crossings have only been allowed to be used if the barrier booms are vertical.

In addition, new regulations for closing barriers were issued and every case of a barrier that was left open was regarded as a train hazard and punished, even if it did not lead to an accident. The GDR also began a large program to equip level crossings with automatic barrier systems or to make railway barriers signal-dependent.

Honor and commemoration

The POS in Rogätz, currently a primary school , as well as the local association Rogätz of the German Red Cross, received the name of the teacher Werner Moritz, who - like another helper - had died in the rescue work. The helpers were posthumously awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver.

12 victims of the accident, who could not be identified, are lying in a communal grave in Magdeburg's Westfriedhof , a memorial for the victims of the accident. A memorial service was held here on July 11, 1967. State mourning was ordered in the GDR on the day of the memorial service. Public transport in Magdeburg was suspended during the memorial service.

swell

literature

  • Heinz Eckhardt: The railway accident in Langenweddingen. In: Börde, Bode and Lappwald. Hometown of the district of Bördekreis. 1998 edition, pp. 61-64.
  • Dirk Endisch: The problem with the barriers. In: Railway accidents. Rail extra. 6/2003, GeraNova Munich, pp. 80-83.
  • Dirk Endisch: The problem with the barriers. In: Railway disasters. Serious train accidents and their causes . GeraMond, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7654-7096-7 , pp. 64-67.
  • Klaus Ridder: The biggest dangerous goods accident in Germany. In: The dangerous goods officer. 16 (7) / 2005, Storck-Verlag Hamburg, p. 7.
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau, Jürgen Hörstel: The disaster scenes of the present = railway accidents in Germany, Vol. 2. Pürgen 1983. ISBN 3-921304-50-4 , p. 180.

Films and reports

Web links

Commons : Langenweddingen railway accident  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 44 ″  N , 11 ° 31 ′ 58 ″  E