Background
Vilseck is a town of 6306 people in northern Bavaria in the south of Germany. Located 58km/36mi east-northeast of Nuremberg and 72km/44.75mi north of Regensburg the little town is defined by the large US Army Base Grafenwöhr (Grafenwöhr Training Area) to the north of the town. Being the largest NATO-facility in Europe the 232qm/89.5square miles large site houses around 4000 soldiers and their families and is named after the city of Grafenwöhr, located to the northeast of it.
The town lies on the Neukirchen-Weiden railway, a 51km/32mi long non-electrified single track main line opened in October 1875. The railway line, mostly used for regional passenger trains, leaves Vilseck northbound and then turns 90° east, forming the edge of the military base (which has it’s own short railway-connection with Vilseck station). In 2001 the top speed on the line was 160kph/100mph for trains with tilting technology and 120kph75mph for all other trains.
The vehicles involved
Travelling westbound towards Vilseck on it’s way from Weiden to Neukirchen as RE (Regional Express) 3560 was a DB (German national railway) Series 612. Introduced in 1998 the Series 612 is a two-part diesel-powered multiple unit carrying up to 146 passengers in a two-class configuration at 51.75m/170ft long. Weighting 116 metric tons empty the Series can reach 160kph/100mph thanks to a 19l/1160cu in inline six diesel engine in each car putting out 563kw/755hp each. Running on a computer controlled special suspension system the trains can tilt up to 8° in corners, similar to a motorbike, allowing higher comfort and higher speeds on older, curvy routes. The nose-section is largely made of fiberglass to save weight, and when in motion a data-logger in the middle of each unit records various data about the train’s motions and functions. The train involved had only left the production line on the 14th of March 2001, 3 months and a few days before the accident.
Approaching the level crossing northeast of Vilseck from the northwest was an Oshkosh M1075 PLS, an unarmored 24 metric ton five-axle truck owned by the US Army carrying two lightweight containers.
The accident
On the 22nd of June 2001 RE 3560 is carrying 22 passengers, a conductor and driver as it approaches Vilseck at 160kph/100mph. It’s approximately 8:22am, the low ridership is not unusual and comes from unpopular scheduling. The previous train on the connection, running an hour earlier, is usually full.
At the same time a 29 years old US-Soldier and his 18 years old female colleague are leaving the local military base in an Oshkosh M1075 PLS container truck, carrying two lightweight containers loaded with tents and camp beds. 700m/2300ft after leaving the base they’re approaching a sharp right turn lining them up with a level crossing. Just as the crossing comes into sight the yellow lights to either side turn on, accompanied by a loud horn. At 8:24:08, after 3 seconds of yellow, the lights turn red. The soldier rounds the turn on the wrong side of the road as the barriers begin to lower, presumably trying to maneuver his truck around the half-width barriers. He stops as the opposite side’s barrier lowers in front of the driver’s cab, with the truck placed right across the track. The barriers are constructed to break away at slight contact, a 24 metric ton truck would have no issue breaking through and probably would suffer barely any damage from it. Instead of doing this the passenger steps out and attempts to force the southern barrier back up. This is registered by sensors on the barrier, causing a warning to pop up in the local signal box. The dispatcher on duty recalls seeing the warning, but he doesn’t get to warn the driver of the train. Coming around a long curve the truck comes into view for the train driver, just 170m/557ft away. The data-logger registers the train dumping pneumatic pressure at 8:24:29am, meaning the driver did initiate an emergency stop. Just 4 seconds later, at 8:24:33am all sensors in the leading driver’s cab go offline as the train hits the truck right in the side at 153kph/95mph, destroying the driver’s cabin on impact. The truck driver is thrown from his cabin and killed as he hits the ground while the truck’s frame gets hooked on the forward section of the train. The Scharfenberg-Coupler pierces the trucks fuel tank, causing a fireball to engulf the front of the train.
The resistance from the heavy vehicle derails the forward wheelset (“bogie”), the momentum keeps the train from veering left or right regardless. The impact and added resistance from the truck and the derailed axles rapidly speed up the deceleration. 325m/1066ft behind the crossing the train, still dragging along most of the truck, finally comes to a stop, the former driver’s cabin has caved in on itself and a significant section of the leading unit is on fire.
The aftermath
At 8:29:06am a survivor of the collision calls the police to report the collision, the first fire department departs for the site at 8:29:55am. They have 4.3km to drive, but report seeing a black column of smoke pretty much as soon as they leave the station. At 8:33am the first units reach the scene, being met by bloodied survivors who left the train and made their way back to the crossing, fearing not being found in the wooded area. Immediately the supervisor of the first arriving crew radios back to dispatch, raising the level of alarm to just below “catastrophe”. Most of a container and the intact southern barrier block the crossing, a firetruck is used to break the barrier open. Two wheels, the destroyed driver’s cabin of the truck and the body of the driver are also found near the point of impact, marking the start of a massive field of debris.
With more and more units arriving at the site some of the responders start cutting a path into the woods between the track and the parallel road to the base, easing access and evacuation. Several ambulances and 6 rescue helicopters take injured survivors to hospitals in the surrounding towns. By 8:57am the military base sends their fire department to help, including a Faun 3500 fire truck meant for airfield fires. The US Army also provides an area for responders to sit down and get a quick drink/bite to eat away from both the site of the accident and arriving media. One of the first firemen to reach the wreckage later recalls an eerie atmosphere, nothing could be heard from inside the train but the low-rpm idle of the engines. The water-capacity of the firetrucks is quickly exhausted, a supply from a nearby river allows further attempts to control the blaze. A group of firefighters attempts to enter the train but is initially forced back by the severe heat and thick smoke, using hydraulic spreaders to open doors and smashing the windows helps to get the smoke to leave the train. At 9:02am firefighters enter the train, recovering the bodies of a passenger and the driver. Melted edges on their visors later tell of the conditions inside. The train is declared empty at 9:12, ramping up the extinguishing-efforts the fire is out 10 minutes later. All in all 3 people die, 23 (including the passenger of the truck) survive with severe injuries.
At 6:28am buses arrive to bring lightly injured or uninjured passengers to Vilseck, they eventually leave unused. Something relatively new at the time was to have a chaplain, deacon Bublitz at the site, offering emotional and spiritual support for survivors and responders. While most responders leave the scene a few stay and cut the frame that is still lodged on the nose of the train into pieces, two winches then allow it to be pulled off the train. With help from the DB’s emergency recovery crew the front of the train is lifted up and re-tracked, allowing it to be towed to nearby Weiden station after some more debris and torn metal is cut off. Once the investigation concludes the train is stripped for spares and eventually scrapped in late August 2008.
Investigators get to work trying to understand how the collision could happen despite the crossing working flawlessly and, according to reports, the truck not having any defects either. It is pretty clear early on that the train cannot be blamed, at full speed there was just not enough distance to stop. Only once the passenger of the truck can be interrogated and talks about trying to open the barrier do the events start to make sense. The assumption that the investigation eventually ends on is that the driver didn’t want to be late, leading him to try and run the crossing, but he was also irrationally worried about damaging the vehicle, turning him off the idea to break through the (comparatively flimsy) barriers.
The damage is later estimated at 6 Million DM (about 3.1 million Euros/3.76 million USD). Obeying a NATO-agreement over the stationing of NATO-troops in other NATO-countries the German government pays both the DB’s damage as well as that of the US Army as the accident happened while the soldier was on duty.
History repeats itself
On the fifth of November 2015 a flatbed truck carrying a smaller truck for the US Army beaches on a level crossing just 3.2km/2 miles from the site of the 2001 accident. It’s struck by a Series 612 travelling eastbound, killing both drivers. Once again leaking fuel causes a fire, while the cargo remains largely unharmed both the semi truck and the train burn down. This time no passengers die, but 19 suffer injuries. The images bear an uncanny resemblance to those from 2001. This time an error in route-planning is to blame, the flatbed truck had too little ground clearance to make it across the tracks.
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