Another German derailment - freight train at Geseke

[BRX]

This doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet. Derailment of a cement train. Sadly it seems the driver did not survive. Appears to have taken place on a main line and could have been much worse other trains had come through at the same time.

Cement-loaded train derails in Germany, killing train driver

A DB Cargo freight train with wagons carrying cement derailed while entering the Geseke station in Germany. According to official sources, multiple railcars and the train’s locomotive overturned, resulting in the train driver’s death. DB Netze informed that due to the accident, the Geseke train...

www.railfreight.com

This in german but has a little more detail

Ein Toter bei Zugunglück in Nordrhein-Westfalen

Ein mit Zement beladener Güterzug ist in Geseke im nordrhein-westfälischen Kreis Soest entgleist. Ein Mensch kam dabei ums Leben. Laut Bundespolizei handelt es sich um den Lokführer. Die Unfallursache ist noch unklar.

www.tagesschau.de

 

[30907]

Happened yesterday, the train on an industrial branch, but the derailed wagons seem to have piled up (at speed?) and fouled the main line. Don't think the cause is yet obvious.

BTW - "Another" - have I missed something?

 

[Nohab1142]

In the German forum "Drehscheibe-Online" are some screenshots from CCTV near the line posted:

DSO

There you can see flames from the engine in the first picture. In the forum are discussions that perhaps the hydraulic gear suffered as a result of the fast movement.
In the second and third picture the driver can be seen on the second freight waggon with the remote controll for the locomotive.
The line is descending to Geseke station and there are discussions that perhaps the train preparation or the brake test resulted in an uncontrolled movement of the train.

 

[duesselmartin]

Mainline services still affected with trains from Hamm ending in Lippstadt.

 

[BRX]

BTW - "Another" - have I missed something?

Mainly was thinking of this one from last year.

Bavaria train crash: At least four killed in German rail accident

At least four people die and some 30 are injured after a train derails in the state of Bavaria.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[JBuchananGB]

There is a report and video on YouTube

VN24 - 10-09-2023 (D/M/Y) - Geseke / Germany -

On Sunday around 15:30 in the small city Geseke (22,000 inhabitants) , a freight train with 12 wagons had come on a single-track sidetrack from a cement plant nearby and apparently wanted to change through the Geseke station in a westbound direction onto the main tracks of a busy line.

But things were to go differently. Shortly after leaving the cement plant about 4,5 kilometers (2.8 miles) away, the engineer noticed a damage in the braking system. He was no longer able to stop the fully loaded train. The freight train continued to accelerate on the track, which was very steep in places.

At a railroad crossing, a random video of the train speeding up was taken, which is available to the police for investigation purposes. On it can be seen that from the engine compartment of the diesel locomotive flames are beating and that there must have been some kind of explosion. In addition, the train is traveling at far excessive speed. It is also easy to see that the train driver is apparently not on the locomotive, but is operating the train by remote control from one of the freight cars, or he has already taken himself to supposed safety there before a probable accident.

In a left-hand bend in the middle of the town center of Geseke, the inevitable accident occurs. The 30-year-old train driver is buried under one of the silo cars and does not survive the accident.

The salvage and clean-up operations will probably take several days. The Hülsmann company has been commissioned to remove the kilometer-long oil trail left by the locomotive.

 

[Mike395]

The accident report has (finally!) been published - unlocked for @U-Bahnfreund to provide an update.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Thanks Mike

The accident report has been published by the German equivalent of RAIB, the Bundesstelle für Eisenbahnunfalluntersuchung (BEU) on Monday. PDF file (4MB) here: https://www.eisenbahn-unfalluntersuchung.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/BEU/Untersuchungsberichte/2023/247_Geseke.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1

The report mainly finds that it was the driver and his actions that caused the accident, as well as blaming his employer (C&K Logistic GmbH) and the operator of the freight train (Eisenbahngesellschaft Potsdam, EGP) for not properly having a system of controlling their employees.

The driver was supposed to take 28 cement cars from a cement works to Geseke station. Due to an incline in the cement works, this should have been done in around 7 trains of 4 cars each. Instead, the driver made up the trains on the open line outside the cement works and planned to achieve his job by 2 trains with 14 cars each.

The first load of 14 cars went fine, but for the second one he didn't properly secure the brakes and the train started rolling out of control into Geseke station with driver not in the cab but busy on one of the cars itself. Due to the speed the engine's gearbox burst during the runaway. He managed to phone the signaller at Lippstadt (responsible for Geseke station) when he realised the emergency, so there wasn't another train at risk. In Geseke station, the train then derailed at speed as seen in the news reports, with the driver unfortunately dying in the wreck.

The driver was apparently trying to do his job faster than planned, because after his 11-hour shift for C&L Logistics GmbH / Eisenbahngesellschaft Potsdam (where he was employed part-time) was supposed to end at 20:15 in Lippstadt, he had another shift at 20:16 driving passenger trains for DB Regio AG (where he was employed full-time) from Bestwig station, around 40 km away. Both employers weren't aware that he had another job as well.

Apart from the driver, the report finds that EGP didn't have proper procedures in place to ensure their drivers (or drivers employed for them) did their jobs correctly and safely. For example, the driver only regularly had to do fairly mundane check-up driving at the simulator, but no real checks of the actual jobs done. The report found that there was an insufficient safety culture.

There were a number of other irregularities noted by the report, even though they weren't causal for the accident: the engine used wasn't approved for this line to run on and the driver also didn't properly secure the level crossings on the branch line and into the cement works. The DB InfraGO signallers at Lippstadt also didn't properly follow the correct procedures for operating the cement works line (but they also wouldn't have known the extent to which the driver's actions were improper)

 

[YorkshireBear]

Not surprised it took them so long to report unpicking all of that! I wonder how many before did it in 2 groups of 14 rather than the 4 it was meant to be.