Near Cologne: Two horses were caught by the regional express and died immediately

Created: 01/03/2023 07:38

On the evening of January 2, a tragic accident involving two horses and a regional express happened in Pulheim.

© Pulheim Fire Department

On the night of Tuesday, two horses were hit and killed by an RE on the railway line between Cologne and Pulheim.

Cologne – A real drama: On Monday, January 2nd, 2023, the Pulheim (Rhein-Erft-Kreis) fire brigade was informed shortly after 11:30 p.m. about an accident on the Cologne-Mönchengladbach railway line in Pulheim, near the Otto-Lilienthal level crossing -Street, informed by the district control center of the fire brigade.

Here two horses should have been hit by a regional express (RE8).

The Pulheim extinguishing train was alerted with the full-time guard and the rescue service.

This message was also confirmed by the emergency services, who were on site a little later with a total of 30 emergency services.

This is reported by 24RHEIN.

Horses hit by train on the railway line between Cologne and Mönchengladbach in Pulheim – they died immediately

• What?

  In Pulheim, two horses were hit by a regional express (RE8).

  They were dead instantly.

• Where?

  Pulheim, near the Otto-Lilienthal-Strasse level crossing

• When?

  Monday, January 2, around 11:30 p.m

After the collision with the horses, the regional express itself came to a standstill a few hundred meters after the accident.

The train was occupied by a total of about 100 passengers, but none of them were injured.

The rescue service got an overview of this on the train, but did not have to take any action.

The railway line was closed in both directions after the accident happened by Deutsche Bahn, which was also on site with federal police forces and an emergency management team.

After RE8 collided with two horses – passengers could not leave the train

The train's railcar had been damaged by the impact with the animals.

Due to the damage, the two-unit train was only able to continue its journey against the original direction of travel.

For safety reasons, the passengers themselves could not leave the train on the open route and were taken back to Cologne-Ehrenfeld station shortly after half past one, where a rail replacement service was organized by Deutsche Bahn.

Dead horses recovered from the track area - fire brigade on duty until shortly before 2 a.m

Before the track could later be reopened, the dead horses were salvaged from the track area and transported away by the owner.

The fire brigade, which until then had mainly illuminated the scene of the accident, was able to end its mission shortly before 2 a.m.

At the beginning of November last year, a horse was hit by a freight train in Leverkusen and died immediately.