23 killed in high-tech train crash in Germany
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday September 23, 4:44 AM
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23 killed in high-tech train crash in Germany*
Twenty-three people were killed and 10 injured when a high-tech train
travelling at speed crashed into a service vehicle on an elevated test
track in northwestern Germany, police said.
"We are working on the basis that there are no more victims," a police
spokesman said.
Rescue workers managed to free all of the dead and injured from the
wreckage of the Transrapid train, which is propelled by electro-magnetic
force.
All of those hurt are in a serious condition and being treated in hospital.
The prosecutor's office in the city of Osnabrueck said the collision
near the town of Lathen, a few kilometres (miles) from the border with
the Netherlands, was the result of "human error."
A radio communication problem was possibly to blame for the collision.
The Transrapid was travelling at about 170 kilometres (106 miles) per
hour on a concrete monorail track built on stilts some five metres (16
feet) above the ground at the time of the collision.
The service vehicle is used every day to clean the track but should not
have been in operation at the same time as the train, officials said.
While the Transrapid train did not plunge off the track, the front of it
derailed in the collision and was hanging over the edge, complicating
efforts to recover the dead and injured.
The accident happened at 9:30 am (0730 GMT). Around 400 rescue workers
searched for the victims and the survivors with the help of sniffer dogs
while firefighters were hoisted up to the train on cranes.
The area around the track was littered with train seats, broken glass,
bags and clothes.
Police said they had earlier searched the ground for passengers who
might have been flung from the train by the impact of the crash.
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived at the site early in the evening and
met relatives of the victims.
"Perhaps my presence here will be a small sign that many people in
Germany share their grief," she said.
The accident happened on a 31.8-kilometre test track, the longest of its
kind in the world. Built in the 1980s, it runs between Lathen and the
nearby town of Doerpen.
The magnetic levitation, or maglev, train is not powered by an engine
but 'floats' above the track.
A spokesman for IABG, the company that operates the track, said it
appeared the accident had been the result of human error as no sign of a
technical fault had been found in initial checks.
"We are distraught about this accident and will establish the cause as
soon as possible," spokesman Rudolf Schwarz said.
The Transrapid train is a joint venture between German engineering
giants Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.
It has reached speeds of up to 450 kilometres per hour on the test track.
Despite being on the cutting edge of technology, the high costs of the
project have hampered its development.
The only Transrapid system currently in commercial use is in China,
where it operates on a 30-kilometre track between Shanghai's financial
district and the city's Pudong airport.
Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee cut short a visit to China to
return home after learning of the disaster and his ministry said it was
setting up a crisis team.