In a serious train accident in the Czech Republic near the Bavarian border, three people were killed and dozens injured. An express train coming from Munich collided head-on with an oncoming regional train on Wednesday. In addition to the two train drivers – both Czech nationals – a passenger from the regional railcar was killed, according to police. “There were no German nationals among the victims of the train accident,” said the Foreign Office on Wednesday evening.
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Ten people were brought to hospitals with serious to life-threatening injuries, said a spokeswoman for the rescue service. More than 30 people suffered minor injuries such as abrasions and bruises. Four Germans were brought to Bavaria for further treatment.
The accident occurred on a single-track line near Domazlice (Taus) in the south-west of the country. Transport Minister Karel Havlicek hurried to the scene of the accident. “The situation is serious,” he said on the spot. He praised the reaction of the rescue workers, who were quickly on site with dozens of helpers and four helicopters.
Pictures made the tremendous force of the impact clear. The driver’s cabs of the locomotive and the railcar were completely destroyed and deeply dented, entire wagons were warped. “Suddenly there was a terrible blow and everything flew through the area,” said an eyewitness to the newspaper “Pravo”. “Just terrible,” said another.
According to initial findings, the Munich-Prague express train ignored a slow speed signal and then a stop signal, explained Transport Minister Havlicek. He then collided on the single-track route with the oncoming multiple unit train, which was on the way from Pilsen (Plzen) to Domazlice on the German border.
Technical defects cannot be ruled out
The official investigation into the cause of the accident should take months. A technical defect cannot be ruled out either, it said. The clash occurred near the village of Milavce. Many of the passengers had to be given psychological support. They were housed in a meeting house before their onward journey could be organized.
Tobias Muhr from the Bavarian Red Cross praised the cross-border cooperation. “Everyone knows what to do here,” he told BR television. His organization immediately sent six ambulances and four ambulances as well as operations managers and interpreters across the border to the Czech Republic.
Accidents happen again and again on Czech railways. The security technology is considered out of date in many places. Only a year ago two trains collided head-on in the Ore Mountains near the German border. Two people died, including a German.
As a result, the government in Prague announced a modernization program for the signaling technology. According to current information, the modern European train control system ETCS is only installed on around 500 kilometers of the route network. It should at least be available on all main corridor routes by 2025.
The property damage is according to initial estimates in the millions of euros. The route must remain closed at least until Friday evening. For years there has been talk of expanding the rail link between Munich and Prague. Currently the travel time between the two cities, which are only 300 kilometers apart as the crow flies, is almost six hours.
The crashed train started in Munich as “Alex” of the Länderbahn. “There are terrible pictures that reach us from the Czech Republic,” said Wolfgang Pollety, the managing director of the Länderbahn. Staff of the Czech state railway Ceske Drahy (CD) had taken over the train at the border. In terms of railway law, the train was therefore the responsibility of the CD, it said. (dpa)
