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Fatal rail accident with open barriers

2020-05-08T14:42:26.553Z


A train hits a pedestrian, a cyclist and a car on a level crossing. A young woman dies. The barrier was not closed. The federal police is now investigating why. There is talk of shaken trust on site.


A train hits a pedestrian, a cyclist and a car on a level crossing. A young woman dies. The barrier was not closed. The federal police is now investigating why. There is talk of shaken trust on site.

Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - A train was approaching, but the barriers were open: A 16-year-old was killed in a serious train accident in Frankfurt's Nied district. According to the federal police, two other people were seriously injured and the train driver was shocked.

The barriers were operated from a guard's house, which was staffed by a train employee that evening, as spokesman for the Frankfurt Federal Police, Ralf Ströher, said. The exact process was still unclear on Friday.

The train driver of a regional train had initiated an emergency stop at around 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, but was unable to prevent the collision with the 16-year-old pedestrian, a car and a cyclist, as the federal police announced. The 50-year-old driver and the 52-year-old cyclist were seriously injured and had to be taken to the hospital. The 35 train passengers were not injured. Emergency psychologists were on site. The train was heading towards downtown Frankfurt.

On Monday, the federal police will set up a special investigation group that will only deal with the accident. "Then we also quickly expect results," said spokesman Ströher. It is also unclear whether the traffic light system also gave no warning. The railway said that no statements can yet be made on the event or the cause.

The level crossing in the Frankfurt district is in a slight curve, several roads lead to it, as well as a parking lot. The keeper's house is right next to the rails. White and red roses were laid down at the scene of the accident.

In Nied there has been a demand for years to replace the level crossing with a tunnel. Mainly for safety reasons: "We all in Nied suspected that there would be a bad accident at some point in the near future. There were almost repeated incidents. But now it really has happened," writes Tobias Fechler, CDU chairman the party's homepage. Confidence in the level crossing is now shaken. "It is incredible that a train comes when the barriers are up. That must never happen," writes the local politician. The start of construction for an underpass was always delayed.

On its website, the Deutsche Bahn basically explains on the subject of level crossings that every two years or in the event of changes in the general conditions such as increased traffic, it is checked whether the existing technology "is still sufficient in its condition or whether it needs to be replaced".

The route between Frankfurt-Höchst and Mainzer Landstraße is expected to remain closed until Monday. The trains are diverted. The DB's representative for Hesse, Klaus Vornhusen, expressed his sympathy to the relatives, as did the Hessian State Railways, whose fleet includes the train.

According to railway information, there are a total of 1180 level crossings in Hesse, 160 of them with so-called full barriers, which tower above both directions of the road. Here, it must always be ensured that the area in between when the barriers are closed, said a spokeswoman. This is done, for example, by video or radar - or by guards on site. In total, the railways registered 146 accidents at level crossings nationwide in 2018.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-05-08

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