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Human error blamed for deadly train collision in Germany – Report

Unknown 8:49 AM Blamed , collision , Deadly , error , Germany , Human , REPORT , Train

• German media reported that human error may have caused the tragic train collision in Bavaria • The police rejected the report as mere speculation • The German railways are equipped with automatic breaking system, but it may have been temporarily disabled prior to the accident The tragic head-on collision of two trains in Germany that took place on February 9 in the state of Bavaria is being blamed on human error; sources close to the investigation have disclosed. A report that a line controller switched off the automatic safety system before the collision occurred to allow one of the trains to make up time circulated in German media. In Hui Min Neo’s article for <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/germany-probes-cause-deadly-train-crash-114443709.html">Yahoo News</a> dated February 10, 2016, the influential German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said “preliminary investigations showed that the safety system had been manually switched off by a signaling controller who only realized he had made a colossal mistake when it was too late.” The police, however, rejected the report as a mere speculation; saying that there are no findings yet in the investigation which is still ongoing. “All possibilities that could have led to this disaster are being examined. That includes examining the black boxes, looking at what happened on the tracks, speaking with witnesses and signaling workers,” a police spokesperson said. Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt warned against any speculation on the cause of the accident. “At the moment we will have to wait. Everything else is speculation and would be unhelpful and inappropriate,” Dobrint said. The investigators are trying to find out why one of the trains, the eastbound train, was in the single track line where the collision happened four minutes after it was due to reach its next stop. The other train, the westbound one, was expected to be at the single track line at the time of the accident. German railways, according to a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35539089">BBC</a> article, are equipped with final safety guard to prevent train crashes called PZB. The PZB or Punktfoermige Zugbeeinflussung (intermittent train control) will set off an alarm in the train driver’s compartment when the train approaches a red light. The train will automatically stop if the driver fails to respond by pressing a button. One of the trains apparently did not stop at a red light for some reasons. It could be human error, a technical glitch or a combination of both; a transport correspondent said. <a href="http://kickerdaily.com/human-error-blamed-deadly-train-collision-in-germany/" rel="nofollow">Kicker Daily News</a>

• German media reported that human error may have caused the tragic train collision in Bavaria • The police rejected the report as mere spe...