Garmisch-Partenkirchen train collision
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| Garmisch-Partenkirchen train collision | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 491 001, one of the trains involved in the accident, seen ten years before in Nürnberg | |
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| Details | |
| Date | 12 December 1995 |
| Location | Garmisch-Partenkirchen |
| Country | Germany |
| Line | Mittenwald Railway |
| Operator | ÖBB, DB |
| Incident type | Collision |
| Cause | SPAD whilst departing |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 2 |
| Passengers | 76 |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Injured | 41 |
| Damage | 491 001 completely disabled after the accident |
The Garmisch-Partenkirchen train collision took place on 12 December 1995, when an ÖBB Regional-Express train traveling from Innsbruck to Munich departed from Garmisch-Partenkirchen Station in Bavaria despite a red light due to distraction, colliding with a DB tourist train, killing one person and injuring 51.
The first train was Regional-Express (RE) number 3612, pulled by the ÖBB 1044 235 electric locomotive, a scheduled train running from Innsbruck HBF to Munich HBF, with a regular 10-minute stop at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen railway station.[1] The second train was a well-known DB Class 491 001 "Glass Train", a tourist train operated by Deutsche Bahn running a chartered service that day on the Mittenwald Line, and traveling in the opposite direction. Because the line was single-tracked, the Glass Train was scheduled to pass through the central track at Garmisch-Partenkirchen Station, while the RE3612 train waited at the station siding before continuing onward. Thus the RE3612's regular 10-minute wait time at the station was lengthened to 13 minutes that day to let the tourist train pass.
The RE's 1044 locomotive was very robust, ensuring that any impact at lower speeds would cause it only minor damage. The 491 tourist train, however, had a much weaker structure due in large part to its panoramic viewing windows. It was also over a half-century older; while the 1044 locomotive had been completed at the SGP workshops in 1992, the 491 001, built by Waggonfabrik Fuchs, had been in service since 1935.
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