The railway line from Darmstadt to Aschaffenburg has two tracks. In late summer 2020, construction work was carried out near a railway bridge over the Main near the Lower Franconian market town of Stockstadt (Aschaffenburg district). It was about corrosion work on the track, a routine intervention actually. For two track workers, however, this intervention ended fatally. On the morning of September 1, 2020, shortly before 8.30 a.m., regional train 28758 of the Hessian State Railway caught the two 22 and 34-year-old men, both of whom died at the accident site.
A supervisor at the jury court in Aschaffenburg has to answer for negligent homicide this Wednesday. The public prosecutor accuses the 29-year-old of being responsible for the deaths of the two workers out of indifference and “disregarding his duty to prevent accidents”. Instead of doing his duty, the 29-year-old is said to have been busy with his mobile phone.
In order to ensure the safety of the workers on the border between Bavaria and Hesse, the company responsible had deployed two so-called railway security teams at the construction site. The prosecution now assumes that the 29-year-old left his post on the day of the accident and went to his vehicle. He was assigned that day as a “security supervisor”. At the latest when he returned to his place of work a little later, he had to realize that the two workers were busy in the track area – and at the moment did not keep the required safety distance to the track. The public prosecutor accuses the 29-year-old of having to immediately ask them to leave the track area. On this day, the workers had the task of cleaning the water channel on the tracks of the Main Bridge.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the 29-year-old should have informed one of the dispatchers to have the route blocked. It is true that only his colleague had the necessary communication device with him. But he could have been informed about this on the track. Instead, the 29-year-old is said not to have gone to the position assigned to him, but to the other side of the tracks to talk to a colleague there. According to the prosecution, the 29-year-old is said to have first made a phone call and then continued to use his cell phone – without paying attention to trains entering the danger area.
The two workers were hit at head height by the running board of the regional train, which was passing through at high speed. The 17 passengers of the train were unharmed, the train driver suffered a shock. The train continued to Stockstadt before it came to a standstill. After the accident, the railway line between Hesse and Bavaria had to be closed for hours. Only one day of trial is scheduled for the trial at the Aschaffenburg district court, so the verdict could still be issued on Wednesday.