Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Bahn: interim report on train accident confirms assumption
Salvage operations in June 2022. Photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
In June 2022, five people died in the train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 78 were injured. Shortly before the anniversary, the interim report of the Federal Office for Railway Accident Investigation on the cause is now available.
According to the interim report by the Federal Bureau for Railway Accident Investigation (BEU) on the fatal train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Deutsche Bahn sees its own investigation results confirmed. “This interim report confirms our assumption – defective concrete sleepers led to this tragic accident,” says a reaction to the BEU interim report published on Thursday.
The railway announced on Wednesday that it would replace around 480,000 concrete sleepers after the accident. On June 3 last year, a regional train to Munich derailed. Five people died and 78 were injured.
The Munich II public prosecutor’s office is continuing to investigate four accused railway employees on suspicion of negligent homicide. Whether the interim report of the Federal Office for Railway Research has an impact on the investigations of the judiciary “cannot be assessed at the moment”, it said on request. “In addition, the report commissioned by the public prosecutor’s office is not yet available,” said a spokeswoman on Thursday.
The Federal Office for Railway Accident Investigation was required by law to submit an interim report by the anniversary of the accident on Saturday. “In this case, the investigations were and are very complex and extensive. As a government agency, we are not allowed to make any assumptions,” a spokesman explained the long wait. The interim report had originally been announced for the beginning of the year.
The relocation of the Katzenbach in the course of the new construction of the federal highway 2, which was repeatedly mentioned by various media, as a possible cause for a partial undermining of the railway embankment, does not seem to be the focus of the investigators. “According to the current status, this is not the primary cause, it is still being determined,” said the BEU spokesman.