Train jumped 2 lights before collision

DPA/Berlin

A regional Harz Elbe Express (HEX) train passes flowers and a condolence sign with the heading ‘WHY’ at the scene of the January 29 train accident in Hordorf

The goods train that crashed head-on with a passenger train in Germany at the weekend, killing 10 people, had passed two red lights in succession, reveals a confidential report compiled by the transport ministry and obtained yesterday by German Press Agency (DPA).

Prosecutors, who have opened an investigation naming the freight-train driver as a suspect, voiced anger at the premature publication of the document.

A horrified rail supervisor vainly tried to halt both the freight train, loaded with 2,700 tons of quicklime headed for the Salzgitter steelworks, and the local passenger train run by HEX, a commercial operator.

The ministerial report said the supervisor at Hordorf ordered both trains by radio to stop instantly.

The 35-year-old driver of the passenger train, which had the right of way, managed to slow from 98kph to 66kph at the moment of collision on a single-track part of the line close to Hordorf. He was killed in the impact.

The paper said the evidence on whether the freight train cut its speed had not yet been fully analysed. The freight train driver, 40, survived with bruises and shock any may be charged with homicide by negligence.

Salzgitter AG, the steel group which owned the freight train, confirmed that the train carrying quicklime from a quarry near Blankenburg to the steelworks had been running two hours behind schedule at the time of the accident.

Two of the 23 injured remain in critical condition from the Saturday crash. In Magdeburg, prosecutors leading a police investigation voiced irritation that the Berlin document had been made public.

Silvia Niemann, a spokeswoman, said, "It annoys us that findings are being published before we, the investigative authority, have even seen them.” But she conceded that the evidence concurred with the finding, saying, "It could well have been so.”

The crash has marred the German railway system’s safety record. Deutsche Bahn, the national rail company which operates the tracks and charges smaller commercial rail companies to use them, said it would analyse all single-track lines and fit automated braking systems at all locations where this was necessary.

Bahn said it would pay for the systems itself, taking the risk that government infrastructure funds might not reimburse the cost.

Labour groups have been hostile to small companies taking over some of state-owned Bahn’s operations, alleging that commercial operators pay lower wages, allow less rest and put profit first.