2011 Saxony-Anhalt train collision

2011 Saxony-Anhalt train collision
Track map of the railway
Details
Date	29 January 2011
Time	~ 22:25
Location	Hordorf, Saxony-Anhalt
Coordinates	52°00′02″N 11°11′30″E / 52.00056°N 11.19167°E / 52.00056; 11.19167Coordinates: 52°00′02″N 11°11′30″E / 52.00056°N 11.19167°E / 52.00056; 11.19167
Country	Germany
Rail line	Magdeburg–Thale railway
Operator	Veolia Verkehr Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH / Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter
Type of incident	Collision
Statistics
Trains	2
Deaths	10
Injuries	23
Route map Legend km ↓ passenger train 42.6 crash site 42.8 main signal A 43.0 43.2 main signal B ↑ freight train 44.0 distant signal B

The 2011 Saxony-Anhalt train collision occurred on 29 January 2011, when a freight train and a passenger train collided near Hordorf in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany on the Magdeburg–Thale line. The passenger train derailed in the collision. Ten people were killed and 43 people were injured, some of them critically.

Initial reports of 33 injured persons^[1][2] were later corrected to 43 (18 critical, 25 non-critical).^[3] Around 100 rescue workers were at the collision site, which is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Berlin.^[2]

Accident

The local passenger train with about 45 to 50 passengers on board was on a single track at a speed of approximately 100 km/h (62 mph), where it collided head-on in very foggy conditions with the freight train, which had a speed of about 80 km/h (50 mph).^[1][4] Both trains had reduced their speeds prior to impact – while the freight train slowed only marginally to 68 km/h (42 mph) the emergency brake of the passenger train allowed it to slow down from 98 to 66 km/h (61 to 41 mph).^[5] The impact derailed the passenger train, which fell on its side next to the track. The front part of the passenger train was crushed.^[4] The freight train ran on for another 500 metres (1,600 ft) before coming to a halt.

Subsequent investigations showed that the freight train had most likely passed a red signal (as well as the additional distant signal requiring it to slow down to 40 km/h [25 mph]).^[5] The track had been planned to be equipped with the PZB automatic train protection system for years; however at the time of the accident it still used only visual signals.^[6] When the freight train passed the switch (which was already set for the passenger train) the train director in the interlocking box at Hordorf was alerted^[7] – he testified that he had radioed an instruction to stop via Zugbahnfunk but got no response until after the collision (which occurred only seconds later).^[5]

Since many people were severely injured, it was considered likely that the death toll could rise in the immediate aftermath of the incident.^[4] The nine killed passengers had lived in the Harz region; the killed driver of the passenger train came from Mecklenburg.^[8]

Trains involved

The passenger train involved in the incident was a lightweight Baureihe 648 operated by Harz Elbe Express, which was traveling from Magdeburg to Halberstadt.^[4] It had a tare weight of 63.5 t.

The freight train was operated by the Peine-Salzgitter company and carried calcium carbonate.^[4] It had a gross weight of about 2700 t pulled by two Vossloh G1700 BB locomotives.

Aftermath

About 100 workers, composed of police and specialized rescue workers, were involved in the rescue efforts.^[4] Ambulances were used to transport the wounded, as heavy fog meant helicopters could not operate.^[4]

Two days after the incident, it was announced that the engineer of the freight train was being investigated for "alleged involuntary manslaughter" and was under suspicion of failing to stop for a red signal prior to the crash.^[9] On 1 February, it was reported that investigators believed that the freight train had passed both a warning and a stop signal prior to the crash.^[10] Investigators hoped to question the operator of the freight train, who was in a state of shock at the time, later that week.^[10]

In response to the crash, the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn said that it would improve safety systems on all single-track rail lines in the country, including adding automatic braking systems as required.^[10] The installation of PZB at Hordorf had already been planned for March 2011 (in order to increase the speed limit to 120 km/h (75 mph) on the track) and it was finally done at the end of May 2011.

The final investigation report was published on 14 September 2011. It excluded any technical problem, summarizing human error as the root cause. The possibility of foggy conditions can not be fully excluded due to the rapid changes of these weather phenomena, but the driver of the preceding train reported a visibility range of 100 to 150 m. Rumors of the train driver being on the second locomotive were rejected in the report as unfounded.^[11]

Criminal charges were brought against the train driver on 3 January 2012 and the trial began on 8 October 2012 in Magdeburg with accusations of killing ten persons ("fahrlässige Tötung" criminally negligent manslaughter), injuring 22 persons ("fahrlässige Körperverletzung" criminal battery through culpable negligence) and the railway damages ("Gefährdung des Bahnverkehrs" reckless endangerment of railway traffic).^[12][13] On 28 November 2012 the train driver, 41-year old Titus S., was convicted to one year on probation following the proposal of both state attorney and defense. The defense stated however that Deutsche Bahn should bear the main share of the blame for ignoring safety problems on the track that had been known before (a near collision of two passenger trains had occurred a few kilometers away in 2006 leading to a plan for an immediate installation of safety measures, which however was delayed as much as after the Hordorf collision).^[14][15][16]

The Sixth Railway Regulations Change Act (Sechste Verordnung zur Änderung eisenbahnrechtlicher Vorschriften) as of 25 July 2012 tightens the rules for the EBO railway regulations so that most of the minor railway tracks need to be upgraded with an automatic train stop till 1 December 2014.^[17] (requirement is on all tracks allowing more than 80 km/h, on all tracks with multiple lines and more than 50 km/h, and on all tracks with multiple lines with any passenger line)

References

Railway accidents in 2011 (2011) Location and date Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (29 January) Concord, United States (13 March) Hallingskeid, Norway (16 June) Fatehpur, India (10 July) Wenzhou, China (23 July) Baby, Poland (12 August) Flores, Argentina (13 September) Alawwa, Sri Lanka (17 September) 2010 2012