Dahlerau train disaster

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Dahlerau station at the time of the accident

Accident site, showing the destroyed first car of the passenger train

The Dahlerau train disaster was a severe railway accident that took place on May 27, 1971 in Dahlerau, a small town belonging to Radevormwald in then-West Germany, in which a freight train and a passenger train crashed into each other. 46 people perished in the accident, of which 41 were senior year pupils of the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule in Radevormwald.^[1] It was the worst accident in West Germany since its foundation in 1949, and was only surpassed after German reunification in 1998 by the Eschede train disaster.

1 Timeline of events
2 Cause of the accident
3 Funerals
4 Aftermath
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Timeline of events

On the evening of May 27, 1971, shortly after 21:00, a train made up of two class VT 95 railbuses of the Deutsche Bundesbahn was running as special service Eto 42227 (units 795 375 + 995 325) on the single-track line between Wuppertal-Oberbarmen and Radevormwald, the so-called Wupper valley line. The train was occupied by senior year pupils of a Radevormwald middle school, their teachers and accompanying railway staff, on the return journey from a class outing in Bremen. The service was about 30 minutes delayed and travelling between Wuppertal-Beyenburg and Dahlerau. A regular local freight train, Ng 16856 (pulled by 212 030, a DB Class V100 engine) and heading from Radevormwald to Wuppertal, was supposed to do an unscheduled stop at Dahlerau station to let the delayed special service pass. In normal operation, the freight train would not wait at Dahlerau.

The freight train first came to a halt at the entrance signal as normal, then pulled into the station, expecting the dispatcher's instructions. The dispatcher would normally step onto the platform and show the driver a green light, giving them permission to proceed. However, as the freight train was supposed to stop and wait for the special service still on the line, a red light would have to be shown. It is unclear what happened exactly, but the train did not stop at the station as supposed to, and departed toward Wuppertal. It is suspected that the train trailed the points already set for the passenger train, as the points' seal, which ruptures in such an event, was later found to be missing. The driver later claimed that the train dispatcher had signalled him with a green light using his hand lamp. About 800 metres north of the station, behind a curve, both trains collided. The motor coach of the two-unit special train was compacted to one third of its length by the freight train locomotive, which was five times as heavy and 20 centimetres higher than the railbus.

Meanwhile, the dispatcher at Dahlerau, who tried to hold back the departing locomotive by running along the passing train and giving emergency signals, but failed to get the driver's attention, had tried to reach the dispatcher in Wuppertal-Beyenburg by telephone to hold back the passenger train. However, the train had already departed from Beyenburg, and there was no way for the dispatcher to reach either the freight train or the railbus by radio, as the station and trains did not have the necessary equipment. The dispatcher, faced with the now inevitable crash, instantly phoned emergency services, informing them of the accident about to happen. Ambulances, firefighters and police were promptly ordered from Radevormwald, Wuppertal and Solingen. The rescue effort was hindered by the inaccessibility of the accident site on a hillside and by parents who had waited for the train at Radevormwald station and had now come to search for their children, as well as onlookers who were attracted by the rescue effort. Owing to the quick rescue and medical treatment, 25 people survived despite their severe injuries. 41 pupils, two teachers, a mother and two railway staff were killed nonetheless. A single pupil was the only person not injured at all.

A crisis squad was established at the Radevormwald town hall. Due to the high body count, the dead were laid out in the Bredderstraße gymnasium. Some of the funeral homes which were asked to supply coffins at night time first thought they were receiving prank calls due to the supposed improbability of such a severe accident.

[edit] Cause of the accident

V100 engine, the same type as used on the freight train

Railbus of the model involved in the accident

The legal proceedings investigating the cause of the accident carried on for one year. The exact happenings could not be reproduced however, as the dispatcher of the station died in a car accident shortly after the train crash. It has been proven that the accident was not caused by the dispatcher, therefore ruling out suicide. The driver of the freight train, who survived the accident, testified in court that he had seen a green light from the dispatcher's hand lantern, signalling him to pass through the station without stopping. The stations of the Wuppertal-Radevormwald branch line were not equipped with exit signals, so showing a green light would indicate the line being clear ahead.

However, the true causes of the accident could never be fully clarified, but it is generally accepted that the likely cause was some form of human error. Since the dispatcher had died during the hearings, the case never went to court.

As a consequence of the incident, the Deutsche Bundesbahn removed the blind on the hand lanterns, which could previously be switched between showing a green and a red light. The accident also caused criticism of the light-weight construction of the railbus in general, as the units dated back to the 1950s already. Their replacements, the DB Class 628 railcars that were built from the mid-1970s on, were constructed considerably more sturdily than the VT 95 railbuses. After the investigation had ended, the damaged railbus was dismantled on September 1, 1971. The engine of the freight train, which did not suffer from major damage, was rebuilt and continued to be in service until 2001.^[2]

[edit] Funerals

As Radevormwald was a small town with a population of about 20,000, the effects of the accident were devastating on its population. An entire year of pupils had been wiped out, and virtually everyone was affected directly or indirectly. Most of the dead teenage pupils were laid to rest in a separate grave on the Radevormwald cemetery. The funeral took place on June 2, 1971, a remarkably hot day, and was attended by about 10,000 people, among them Chancellor Willy Brandt, the Minister of Transport and the president of the Bundesrat. Public life came to a halt on that day, as shops were kept closed and the train service on the railway line was suspended while the funeral took place. Condolences arrived from places as far as France and Great Britain. One uncle of a pupil who had died in the rail accident suffered a heart attack due to the hot weather and died later on.

In 1972, a stone pillar containing the inscription "Komme Geist von den vier Winden herbei und hauche diese Toten an, damit sie lebendig werden" (Ezekiel 37,9, translates as "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live") was placed next to the graves. At first, the inscription was criticised as overly and inappropriately optimistic ("...that they may live"), but the complaints settled down after a while.

[edit] Aftermath

Graves at Radevormwald cemetery, 2004

Even today, almost 40 years after the incident, the railway accident still is an often-discussed event in the populace of Radevormwald, especially around its anniversary. While some regard discussing the topic as sensationalism, others consider the continuous dealing with the events as a lack or failure of coming to terms with it. As it was not yet common in the 1970s to offer psychological counselling for those involved in the accident, i.e. survivors, next of kin and rescue workers, and as the victims of the event were all local people (contrary to other large-scale accidents, where the geographical distribution of victims usually is less shallow), some unique behaviour patterns can be observed in Radevormwald. Most citizens know about the accident, and many had relatives or friends who were involved in the accident in some form or another. Often people who had lost family members became aggressive towards those who survived, damaging the socio-psychological climate of the small town. It has been reported that some people, now in their 20s, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder even though they were not alive at the time of the accident, and would go as far as not using trains at all. This is a behaviour previously observed with children of survivors of the Holocaust.

Dahlerau station was equipped with Indusi protected exit signals in 1975. The line from Wuppertal to Radevormwald was closed in 1976.

Since 1989, an initiative exists to establish a museum service on the line. The initiative has purchased part of the former railway line in 1994, including the station of Dahlerau and the place where the incident took place. The line only continues unto a point a few kilometres south of the station, however, as the remaining length of track to Radevormwald was flooded during the construction of the Wuppertalsperre dam in the 1980s.^[3]