The defendant’s hands disappeared under his table in Room 168 for hours. The 29-year-old seemed nervous, depressed and sometimes breathing heavily. At times it seemed as if the man in the grey-black hooded sweatshirt could not properly follow the trial against him before the Aschaffenburg district court, as if he did not understand the questions of the chief public prosecutor and the joint plaintiff’s attorneys.
The man, who was born in Rhineland-Palatinate, had to answer for two cases of negligent homicide on Wednesday. The indictment accused him of being responsible for the fact that workers on railway tracks on the Bavarian-Hessian border were hit by a train and killed. The jury also came to the same conclusion. “It is negligent homicide in two cases,” said presiding judge Andreas Burghardt.
Ultimately, the court decided on a prison sentence of one year and nine months, suspended on probation. The probationary period was set at three years. In addition, the 29-year-old, who was then employed as a security supervisor, had to pay a payment of 2,000 euros each to two surviving dependents, in installments of 100 euros each per month. The decision is not yet final.
On the day of the accident, September 1, 2020, as a safety supervisor, the accused was actually tasked with warning the workers on his side of the track about trains or having the route blocked. Instead, the 29-year-old left his post and went to the other side of the track. “He then made a call and worked on his mobile phone without paying attention to trains entering the danger area,” said senior public prosecutor Marco Schmitt.
“It is correct that my client had the task of protecting the workers,” said defense attorney Christian Giloth. It was a fatal mistake that he did not have the route between Stockstadt am Main and Mainaschaff closed as required because the workers could not maintain the necessary safety distance from the tracks. “He thought it was reasonable for the work to be carried out in this way.”
On the opposite side of the track, the defendant did not see the regional train in the opposite direction because of a freight train, which captured the 22 and 34-year-old victims. “He also extremely regrets his wrong decision that day.” Stress with the girlfriend, trouble with the bank: “That’s why he wasn’t 100 percent in the matter,” said the 29-year-old’s lawyer.
Attorney Schmitt spoke of indifference and disregard for the duty of care. “He was on his cell phone when the train came,” confirmed a colleague of the accused, who was standing on the assigned side of the track as a security guard at the time of the accident, not far from the 29-year-old. “He didn’t realize at first that a train was coming from my side,” said the 26-year-old. Because of the freight train, he himself said, “Caution, train journey!” called. “Exactly at that moment a train came from the other side” – but the defendant did not notice this second train, a regional train.
When the freight train and the regional train had left, “I saw two people lying on the ground,” said the 26-year-old witness. “When the two died, he (the accused) didn’t even notice.” According to his own words, the regional train driver at the time did not even notice that he was hitting two people. “I heard something.” He only found out about the accident in Stockstadt station, not far from the scene of the accident, after he had discovered blood on the train.
Since then he has had doubts about his work: “I’m about to change jobs,” said the 32-year-old. He no longer has confidence “in the entire railway system”, also because he later witnessed a near-accident in which a dispatcher made a mistake. “I definitely don’t want to have anything to do with the railways anymore.” So far he is still employed by the Hessian State Railways. He doesn’t yet know what he wants to do in the future.