Dahlerau train disaster
Encyclopedia
Accident
An accident or mishap is an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance, often with lack of intention or necessity. It implies a generally negative outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its...
that took place on May 27, 1971 in Dahlerau
Dahlerau
Dahlerau is a borough of Radevormwald, located in the Oberbergischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the valley of the river Wupper and situated about 7 km by road away from Radevormwald city centre....
, a small town belonging to Radevormwald
Radevormwald
Radevormwald is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the oldest towns in the Bergischen Land, formerly the County and Duchy of Berg.-Geography:Radevormwald is located about 50 km east of Cologne...
in then-West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, in which a freight train and a passenger train crashed into each other. 46 people perished in the accident, of whom 41 were senior year pupil
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s of the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule in Radevormwald. It was the deadliest accident in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
since its foundation in 1949; it was surpassed after German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
in 1998 by the Eschede train disaster
Eschede train disaster
The Eschede train disaster was the world's deadliest high-speed train accident. It occurred on 3 June 1998, near the village of Eschede in the Celle district of Lower Saxony, Germany. The toll of 101 people dead and 88 injured surpassed the 1971 Dahlerau train disaster as the deadliest accident in...
.
Timeline of events
On the evening of May 27, 1971, shortly after 21:00, a train made up of two Class VT 95Uerdingen railbus
The Uerdingen railbus is the common term for the multiple units which were developed by the German firm of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and private railways after the Second World War. These vehicles were diesel-powered, twin-axle railbuses of light construction...
railbus
Railbus
A railbus is a very lightweight type passenger rail vehicle that shares many aspects of their construction with a bus, usually having a bus, or modified bus body, and having four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies...
es of the Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
was running as special service Eto 42227 (units 795 375 + 995 325) on the single-track line between Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
-Oberbarmen and Radevormwald
Radevormwald
Radevormwald is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the oldest towns in the Bergischen Land, formerly the County and Duchy of Berg.-Geography:Radevormwald is located about 50 km east of Cologne...
, the so-called Wupper Valley Railway. The train was occupied by senior year pupils of a Radevormwald middle school, their teachers and accompanying railway staff, on the return journey from a class outing in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
.
The service was about 30 minutes delayed and travelling between Wuppertal-Beyenburg and Dahlerau. A regular local freight train, Ng 16856 (pulled by 212 030, a DB Class V 100
DB Class V 100
These DB Class V 100 diesel locomotives were produced in the late 1950s by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for non-electrified branch lines as a replacement for steam locomotives...
engine) and heading from Radevormwald to Wuppertal, was supposed to do an unscheduled stop at Dahlerau station to let the delayed special service pass. In normal operation, the freight train would not wait at Dahlerau.
The freight train first came to a halt at the entrance signal
Railway signal
A signal is a mechanical or electrical device erected beside a railway line to pass information relating to the state of the line ahead to train/engine drivers. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly...
as normal, then pulled into the station, expecting the dispatcher's instructions. The dispatcher would normally step onto the platform and show the driver a green light, giving them permission to proceed. However, as the freight train was supposed to stop and wait for the special service still on the line, a red light would have to be shown. It is unclear what happened exactly, but the train did not stop at the station as supposed to, and departed toward Wuppertal. It is suspected that the train trailed the points already set for the passenger train, as the points' seal, which ruptures in such an event, was later found to be missing. The driver later claimed that the train dispatcher had signalled him with a green light using his hand lamp. About 800 metres north of the station, behind a curve, both trains collided. The motor coach of the two-unit special train was compacted to one third of its length by the freight train locomotive, which was five times as heavy and 20 centimetres higher than the railbus.
Meanwhile, the dispatcher at Dahlerau, who tried to hold back the departing locomotive by running along the passing train and giving emergency signals, but failed to get the driver's attention, had tried to reach the dispatcher in Wuppertal-Beyenburg by telephone to hold back the passenger train. However, the train had already departed from Beyenburg, and there was no way for the dispatcher to reach either the freight train or the railbus by radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, as the station and trains did not have the necessary equipment. The dispatcher, faced with the now inevitable crash, instantly phoned emergency services, informing them of the accident about to happen. Ambulances, firefighters and police were promptly ordered from Radevormwald
Radevormwald
Radevormwald is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the oldest towns in the Bergischen Land, formerly the County and Duchy of Berg.-Geography:Radevormwald is located about 50 km east of Cologne...
, Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
and Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
. The rescue effort was hindered by the inaccessibility of the accident site on a hillside and by parents who had waited for the train at Radevormwald station and had now come to search for their children, as well as onlookers who were attracted by the rescue effort.
Owing to the quick rescue and medical treatment, 25 people survived despite their severe injuries. 41 pupils, two teachers, a mother and two railway staff were killed nonetheless. A single pupil was the only person not injured at all.
A crisis squad was established at the Radevormwald town hall. Due to the high body count, the dead were laid out in the Bredderstraße gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium. Some of the funeral home
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
s which were asked to supply coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
s at night time first thought they were receiving prank call
Prank call
A prank call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders...
s due to the supposed improbability of such a severe accident.
Cause of the accident
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. The driver of the freight train, who survived the accident, testified in court that he had seen a green light from the dispatcher's hand lantern, signalling him to pass through the station without stopping. The stations of the Wuppertal-Radevormwald branch line were not equipped with exit signals, so showing a green light would indicate the line being clear ahead.
However, the true causes of the accident could never be fully clarified, but it is generally accepted that the likely cause was some form of human error
Human Error
Human Error is the stage name of Rafał Kuczynski , a polish electronic musician, working mostly in the ambient music genre, produced only with a computer...
. Since the dispatcher had died during the hearings, the case never went to court.
As a consequence of the incident, the Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
removed the blind on the hand lanterns, which could previously be switched between showing a green and a red light. The accident also caused criticism of the light-weight construction of the railbus in general, as the units dated back to the 1950s already. Their replacements, the DB Class 628
DB Class 628
The DB Class 628 is a twin-car, diesel multiple unit operated by the Deutsche Bahn AG for local passenger rail services.- Design :...
railcars that were built from the mid-1970s on, were constructed considerably more sturdily than the VT 95 railbuses.
After the investigation had ended, the damaged railbus was dismantled on September 1, 1971. The engine of the freight train, which did not suffer from major damage, was rebuilt and continued to be in service until 2001.
Funerals
As Radevormwald was a small town with a population of about 20,000, the effects of the accident were devastating on its population. An entire year of pupils had been wiped out, and virtually everyone was affected directly or indirectly.Most of the dead teenage pupils were laid to rest in a separate grave
Grave (burial)
A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....
on the Radevormwald cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
. The funeral took place on June 2, 1971, a remarkably hot day, and was attended by about 10,000 people, among them Chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, the Minister of Transport and the president of the Bundesrat
Bundesrat
Bundesrat means federal council and may refer to:* Bundesrat of Germany* Federal Council of Austria* Swiss Federal Council...
. Public life came to a halt on that day, as shops were kept closed and the train service on the railway line was suspended while the funeral took place. Condolences arrived from places as far as France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. One uncle of a pupil who had died in the rail accident suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
due to the hot weather and died later on.
In 1972, a stone pillar
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
containing the inscription "Komme Geist von den vier Winden herbei und hauche diese Toten an, damit sie lebendig werden" (Ezekiel
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....
37,9, translates as "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live") was placed next to the graves. At first, the inscription was criticised as overly and inappropriately optimistic ("...that they may live"), but the complaints settled down after a while.
Aftermath
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
, others consider the continuous dealing with the events as a lack or failure of coming to terms with it. As it was not yet common in the 1970s to offer psychological counselling for those involved in the accident, i.e. survivors, next of kin and rescue workers, and as the victims of the event were all local people (contrary to other large-scale accidents, where the geographical distribution of victims usually is less shallow), some unique behaviour patterns can be observed in Radevormwald. Most citizens know about the accident, and many had relatives or friends who were involved in the accident in some form or another. Often people who had lost family members became aggressive towards those who survived, damaging the socio-psychological climate of the small town. It has been reported that some people, now in their 20s, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
even though they were not alive at the time of the accident, and would go as far as not using trains at all. This is a behaviour previously observed with children of survivors of the Holocaust.
Dahlerau station was equipped with Indusi protected exit signals in 1975. The line from Wuppertal to Radevormwald was closed in 1976.
Since 1989, an initiative exists to establish a museum service on the line. The initiative has purchased part of the former railway line in 1994, including the station of Dahlerau and the place where the incident took place. The line only continues unto a point a few kilometres south of the station, however, as the remaining length of track to Radevormwald was flooded during the construction of the Wupper Dam in the 1980s.