An 18-year-old man was hit by a regional train with his car on a level crossing in Upper Bavaria and was critically injured. According to initial findings, he drove his car onto the tracks on Monday evening in Eschenlohe (Garmisch-Partenkirchen district), despite the closed barrier, as a police spokesman said on Tuesday night.
The driver and passengers on the train were unharmed, the spokesman said. Because of the accident, the railway line between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Eschenlohe was closed, as Deutsche Bahn announced on Twitter. Trains from Munich ended prematurely in Murnau. The railway set up a replacement service. The road closure was lifted overnight.
It was only on Sunday morning that there was a similar incident at a level crossing in Neustadt am Rübenberge near Hanover, the cause of which is also still unclear. There, too, a car drove onto the level crossing despite the half barriers being closed, was hit by a regional train at full speed and dragged along hundreds of meters. The 22-year-old driver of the car and two young passengers aged 20 and 22 died.