Germany: No one missing in deadly train crash; cause sought

A crew using the boats and helicopters has rescued hundreds of people from the damage scene of two German trains that have been crashed this Tuesday in a cut off part of Bavaria.

Police spokesman Stefan Sonntag told The Associated Press the two regional trains crashed near Bad Aibling, in Bavaria before 7 a.m. and that several wagons overturned.

A spokesman for the fire department said that two recovery trains ordered from northern and eastern Germany should soon arrive to start removing the wreckage from the tracks. This lead to death of 10 people and the authorities were trying to find out that why multiple numbers of safety measures have failed all at a time.

Newspaper group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschand (RND), citing sources close to the investigation, said a signalling station worker had manually deactivated the automatic signalling system to let the first train – which was running late – go past.

‘[The drivers] did not have eye contact and neither had braked before they crashed into each other, ‘ said transport minister Alexander Dobrindt.

The second train then forged ahead on the same track in the opposite direction, before the first was able to split off where the line divides into two, according to RND.

“We have no knowledge whether this was down to human failure or a technical problem”, he said. While the train dispatcher had already been interrogated, that did not mean he was necessarily under suspicion.

The company said the safety system had been checked last week.

“We’re lucky that we’re on the Carnival holidays, because usually many more people are on these trains”, regional police chief Robert Kopp said.

About 700 emergency personnel from Germany and neighbouring Austria were involved in the rescue efforts and about a dozen helicopters were used. The operator, Bayerische Oberlandbahn, offered bus services for passengers instead. “We are doing everything to help the passengers, relatives and employees”, said Bernd Rosenbusch, the head of the Bayerische Oberlandbahn.

In Munich, the city blood center put out an urgent call for donors in the wake of the crash.

Germany is known for the quality of its train service but the country has seen several other accidents, typically at road crossings. Most recently, a train engineer and a passenger were killed in May when a train hit a vehicle in western Germany, and another 20 people were injured.

All bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, police said, adding that 17 people were severely injured and 63 slightly hurt in the collision near the southern spa town of Bad Aibling.

Ten people were killed and 80 injured in the crash, which is the worst in the region since the 1970s.