Passenger train ran into back of stopped freight train. 20~50 injured.

All photos (c) DPA

Thanks for the update. I can see that there is one coach that is going to be scrapped, it won't be worth trying to repair one with a banana bend like that in it.

Yeah, so it was a full freight train, that had stopped at a stop signal on the track awaiting the go signal, which it had gotten and was beginning to move at the point of impact. The NX passenger train should not have been cleared to enter the occupied track block. The data recorders from both trains have been secured and will be evaluated... But several media are indeed indicating a dispatcher may have given verbal approval for the engineer to drive past the red signal on the track into the still occupied track block. A screwup in the handling of train numbers or other human error combined with the existing ability for dispatchers to override the signals on track segments as a regular course of action seems likely to be a key contributor.

The accident had knocked down some cantenary wire, which fell on some car(s) and electrified them, delaying the rescue - which for all of us, is a reminder to think about when in an accident.
The T-Online article indicates the NX train driver did pull the emergency brake once he saw the back end of the freight train, and that prevented a much worse outcome.

So we get to see rescue / support equipment deployed again, what I think is a BR 711.

The freight train was empty, heading to Rotterdam. Such a light-weight railcar colliding with full ore cars (12-axle type - permanently coupled pairs of six-axle ore hopper cars) might have suffered more from the collision.

The railcar has a banana shape. But it appears to have pushed three hopper cars off the rails. With full ore cars the railcar may have doubled up.

I think trains passing red signals by order are limited to 40 km/h.

More details will get known over time.

God question. I've gotten the feel (maybe wrongly) that this happens way more often than I would have thought (I'd have thought near Zero unless you know the signal is broken and have positive knowledge of the block contents )

I once sat in a street car that was stopped at a red signal. Train driver spake with the dispatcher, wrote down his written instruction to bypass the red signal - and bypassed the red signal.
This shouldn't be done carelessly. This should only occur after double or triple checks.

Signals are built to fail safe - they should show red when something goes wrong. Sometimes the signal shows red, even if the track is free.

Sometimes the normal pattern no longer works. At another time I was in a DB train that had to change direction halfway between to stations because another train blocked the regular track. So the train went back "at sight" to the previous station. Then, under computer control again, it changed to the other track and continued the journey.


In the Bad Aibling accident, he overruled the computer and turned the signal to green - and the train driver had no reason to be alarmed.
In this case it seems the train driver bypassed the red signal after receiving instructions from the controller. So at least the train driver knew it was an unusual situation.
Different cases, different procedures.

So our buddy BR 732 is back in action again. (Photos DPA)







And a 711 does the job of repairing the cantenary

We know the freight train had already started to move, and the passenger train was doing full emergency braking, all of which contributed to the reduced amount of damage, but its still interesting to see, given how banana-shaped the first drive car is, how undamaged the interior of the engineers cabin appears to be.

(images from bild.de )

We will have to wait till the investigation unfolds. The data and voice recorders have been recovered, and the people are being interviewed. The only statements on the possible cause so far is that neither of the two trains' engineers are responsible.
For the freight train, there are no tail lights, just some reflective boards, so spotting a matte brown/rust colored freight car at night from a cab by headlights is like seeing a bicycle on a stretch of highway, assuming the boards are not dirty... you likely only spot it at last second...

I was curious if there was any new info on this and did some follow-up research
1) The train operator was given the approval by the dispatcher covering the line to proceed past the red/stop signal that was showing for the train.
2) The freight train that was on that section and had been stopped had just been given approval to proceed into the following station, Meerbusch-Osterath, and had begun moving.

So early indications are not yet conclusive - did the dispatcher mistakenly give the approval to proceed despite the line not being clear in the next block (and why the heck don't the signals get used and are operational). And did the train operator proceed at too high of a speed? (though I'd expect that dispatchers don't rely on assumed times to depart for the freight and arrive for the commuter rail to prevent a collision within the block... that seems destined for trouble)

Adding some images from the German Wikipedia article on the crash; showing crane in operating clearing derailed cars.
No conclusion to the investigation yet.



https://de.wikipedia.org...l_von_Meerbusch-Osterath

Edited by user 03 April 2018 18:06:35(UTC)  | Reason: Add link to German Wikipedia article