German Train Collision

[ALC Rail Writer]

(CNN) -- Ten people were killed and 43 were injured, 18 seriously, when two trains collided in eastern Germany late Saturday, a Magdeburg Police spokesman said.The crash between a regional HarzElbeExpress passenger train and a freight train occurred less than two miles from the nearby town of Oschersleben shortly after 10:30 p.m. local time.

Full story here...

Is this an ICE train?

 

[George Harris]

(CNN) -- Ten people were killed and 43 were injured, 18 seriously, when two trains collided in eastern Germany late Saturday, a Magdeburg Police spokesman said.The crash between a regional HarzElbeExpress passenger train and a freight train occurred less than two miles from the nearby town of Oschersleben shortly after 10:30 p.m. local time.

Full story here...

Is this an ICE train?

Based on this map, the answer appears to be no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICE_Network.png

Going a step further, due more to curiosity than good sense, I tried to find a better rail map of Germany. Found one that you can flounder around it, but in German. Pull it up and click on your guess of where you want to look closer.

http://kursbuch.bahn.de/hafas/kbview.exe/dn?rt=1&mainframe=IK_strecken

It appears that this line is a local service only line out of Magdensburg going to Thale

Now, you know as much as I do about the location.

 

[PerRock]

here is the BBC article on it (with vid!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12082035

According to the BBC it was a regional train so no not an ICE.

peter

 

[train person]

Passenger train was 2 car diesel unit operated by Veolia sub contractor HarzElbe Express, freight was operated by a private operator of which there are lots in Germany.

http://j327.fotopic.net/p61608791.html

Track is basically single track with one or two double track sections.

The reports I have seen so far indicate that the accident happened on a single track section, so either signal failure or driver passing a stop signal would seem to be the cause.

Not nice.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Closer video footage of the crash scene from the German network RTL. My German's shakey, but I can understand a bit about a signal being passed, presumably at danger.

http://www.rtl.de/medien/information/rtlaktuell/12e95-0-51ca-18/zugunglueck-signal-uebersehen.html

From about 1:50 onwards you get a terrifying indication of the forces involved - the front half of the leading carriage is completely destroyed and the freight train continued for about another 500 metres before coming to a stop.

 

[Tracktwentynine]

Closer video footage of the crash scene from the German network RTL. My German's shakey, but I can understand a bit about a signal being passed, presumably at danger.

Correct. The freight train apparently had a stop signal at the end of the double track. It did not stop, for whatever reason.