Judging by the way one head-end car was split wide open by the other Germany doesn't require FRA standard 19th century battleship ram bow construction for lead units.
Latest report is that one of the casualties that made it to the hospital missed the survivors' list. My deepest sympathy to all concerned, especially to the families of the ten deceased.
Anyone who thinks that ANY safety system will be 100.000% effective is living in dreamland. As for those who think that they can legislate foolproof technology...
Chuck
Any system is only as good as it's designers.... Humans make mistakes, so, it is only logical that any system they design can also make mistakes. Absolutely no system will be perfect, nor work perfectly.
While the German PZB, and in the US, PTC, may prevent some accidents and collisions, it can never prevent all of them.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
The tentative ground given for the accident by the German Press Agency is "human error", with a towerman taking the PZB system out of service, possibly to expedite one of the trains "by hand". The PZB system is more like intermittent Automatic Train Stop (ATS) than true PTC.
A good description of the PZB system in Wikipedia. The line is equipped with the newest PzB90 version.
PzB Indusi system
Cab Ride video covering the line from the Cab of a freight train
Mangfalltalbahn Cab Ride video
The line follows the Mangfall River.
Pending formal investigation of the cause of this occurence - NOTHING IS TOTALLY FAIL PROOF.
With all the platitudes that are being heaped on the yet to be operational PTC initative in the US - NOTHING IS TOTALLY FAIL PROOF.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/ungluecke/zugunglueck-bei-bad-aibling-in-oberbayern-mit-mehreren-toten-14059975.html
"The stretch between Holzkirchen and Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria, where the accident happened - probably the most serious train accident in Bavaria since 1975 - is single track. At 6:50 the two trains of the Bayerische Oberland Bahn collided in a curve between the stations "Kolbermoor" and "Bad Aibling-spa" near the sewage treatment plant of Bad Aibling. A train derailed after the railcar of the two trains had wedged together. Cars plunged from the rails. The cause of the disaster was initially unclear. In principle the trains at the site were allowed a speed up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the German Railways. The rail traffic locking in Germany train protection system PZB had technically checked on the line concerned only about a week ago. Here there were no problems, said the Group represented by Deutsche Bahn (DB) for Bayern, Klaus-Dieter Josel, on Tuesday at a press conference in Bad Aibling."
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Two trains collided early on Tuesday morning in southern Germany, derailing carriages and killing nine passengers and injuring over 100 others.
http://www.thelocal.de/20160209/train-crash-near-munich-leaves-several-injured
Over 96 percent of Germany's rail network is fitted with the PZB system, which is supposed to prevent collisions – so how did Tuesday morning's full-frontal crash happen?
http://www.thelocal.de/20160209/why-the-bavarian-train-crash-shouldnt-have-been-possible
Does anybody know how the PZB system in Germany works? Is it similar to PTC being implemented in the United States?
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