A high-tech train traveling at 200kph crashed in northwestern Germany on Friday, killing at least 23 people in the first fatal wreck involving the magnetic levitation system.
The train, which runs primarily as a demonstration by its manufacturer, was carrying at least 29 people when it struck a maintenance vehicle carrying two workers on the elevated track. Mangled wreckage hung from the 4m-high track, with seats and other debris strewn below.
Police spokesman Martin Ratermann said the death toll rose to 23 after more searching was done in and around the train, which crashed about a kilometer from the station at the village of Melstrup. Officials also reported 10 people were injured.
PHOTO: EPA
Magnetic-levitation trains use powerful magnets to float the trains just above the elevated track, allowing them to glide along without friction.
The collision on a 32km track between Doerpen and Lathen near the Dutch border, shattered the front of the train, which came to rest still on its elevated guideway. Rescuers had to use fire ladders and cranes to reach the wreck.
The maintenance car was regularly used to check and clear the tracks of branches and other debris.
Rudolf Schwarz, a spokesman for IABG, which oversees the track, said the accident was the result of human error.
"At this time, the accident was not caused by a technical failure. It is the result of human error," he said.
The Transrapid train is made by Transrapid International, a joint company of Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp AG. The track is operated by Munich-based IABG mostly as an exhibition aimed at showing off Germany's advanced "maglev" technology, which has been led by ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens AG.
Aboard the train were Transrapid employees, workers from a home nursing care company and people from local utility RWE. Klaus Schultebraucks, a spokesman for utility RWE Westfalen, confirmed several of the company's workers were aboard but he did not know how many nor if they survived.
"We only know a group of our employees were riding on the train," he said. "We don't have more information."
Schwarz said IABG was still getting the details of the accident.
"We're trying to get as many details as we can," he said, adding that the train, which can reach speeds of as much as 450kph, was travelling at about 200kph.
Tourists can sometimes ride the train for fun, but otherwise it is primarily used for selling Germany's maglev technology.
Kevin Coates, a former spokesman for Transrapid, said it was the first time that he was aware of a crash of a magnetic-levitation train.
"I have to believe that this is not a malfunction of the technology but a communications breakdown" between the operators and the maintenance personnel, he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel left a conference in Berlin and arrived near the scene by helicopter.
Wearing black, she said her thoughts were with the victims.
"I want to show that I am with them," she said.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS