Accident in Saxony

More than 50 people were injured, four seriously, when two narrow-gauge steam trains collided in Radebeul, Saxony, on Saturday evening.

Police began an investigation into the cause of the collision as work began Sunday to pull the wreckage of the historical Lößnitzgrundbahn trains off the tracks.

Around 250 people were riding on both trains on the single-track route to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the line between Moritzburg and Radebeul.

Although the cause of the crash is not yet known, police said more trains were in operation than normal during festival to mark the anniversary.

The 52 injured included seven children under the age of ten, police said. Organisers cancelled the remainder of the festival after the crash.

 

Really bad this. Some AP footage of the aftermath - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VgP4qJrCWw

 

That does look pretty bad, hopefully the injured will make a full recovery.

Does Germany have anything similar to RAIB or will their equivalent of the HSE investigate the incident?

Regards,

Dan

 

Yes they do. They are called EBA; more information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Railway_Office

EBA's English Website:
http://www.eba.bund.de/EN/Home/homepage__node.html?__nnn=true


Gareth

 

Photos http://www.mdr.de/sachsen/6685112-0.html#anker-inhalt

Video at bottom of page http://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/6684763.html

 

I was there that day and it was a very sad day all round. a couple of hours prior to this Saxon Meyers 145 and 176 heading a vintage train into Radebeul hit a car on a level crossing near Weisses Ross, scratching the engines paintwork and doing some damage to the coaches as well. A very bad day all round

 

Were both trains going the in the same direction (i.e. was it a tail end shunt), or were they going in opposite directions?
Do you know how single line occupation was protected (staff, token or whatever)?
Thanks for any info!

 

I'm shocked. I was there only three weeks ago.

http://johnleyland736.mediaobject.co.uk/p60588690.html

 

Martin, it was head-on, that's obvious from the various photos on the web.

 

The 2 trains had a head on near Friedewald Hp station. 20 with about 6 coaches was heading up the line to Moritzburg and hit 99 1789-9 with 11 coaches returning from Moritzburg to Radebeul. I believe the line was shut until tuesday.