The investigations at the accident site of the fatal train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen are dragging on. The repair work could not be started on Thursday either: “The accident site is still not released because assessments are still taking place,” said the press spokesman for the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria South, Stefan Sonntag.
The almost 50 employees Soko “Zug” continue to work at full speed. You have to wait “until at some point the experts say: We have now examined everything”.
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According to reports, the work could last until after the G7 summit at the end of June. However, the railway does not provide any information on this. “DB is currently not working on site, the accident site has not yet been fully released,” said a railway spokesman.
The locomotive and a wagon are still on the tracks. Coming from the north, they would have to be recovered by rail after they were released. For this, however, the track had to be repaired so that a rail crane could reach the scene of the accident. The repair of the track section should begin in the course of the next few days.
After the train accident near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Thomas Strang, an expert in communication and navigation at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), warned to first look for the cause and only then for those responsible. He basically sees an error in the system.
“In other countries it is not so important who was to blame – but what happened and how can we systematically prevent it next time?” Strang told the German Press Agency. “Of course, in such accidents, some person usually contributed by overlooking something.”
However, the mistake of an individual should not lead to an accident. A system of multiple security measures is necessary. “We need redundancies that prevent a mistake from leading to an accident.” Every bicycle or e-scooter has two independent braking systems.
The ETCS safety system is to be introduced across the EU, with which, for example, compliance with the speed limit at slow-moving sections is monitored. “It’s a good thing – but it’s years, if not decades, away from coming.” It needs faster solutions – and more than one solution. Otherwise we are with the e-scooter with a brake.”
Various slow-moving sections show that there is a need for renovation of the DB Netz rails. “The number of slow-moving sections is a direct indicator of the condition of our network.” However, according to Strang’s assessment, there is a lack of qualified specialists who can design the corresponding work. In addition, the route network is so busy that every construction site severely impedes operations.
