Always wondered about those trailers on US highways with thoses same curtains. Acquaintance spoke that he saw one start flaping and was quick to flag the driver down. Will now give them even more space !
This has to go down as the most unusual passenger train accident of the decade ?
This is something of a European thing: cases of beer, a commodity that is difficult to tie down or 'dun' in, were being transported in those fabric-sided flatbeds used in Europe to protect loads from weather ... perhaps with only their own weight holding them down and the tension of the siding holding them within the loading gauge. Storm-force winds out over the sea tore the 'curtain' open and provided lateral and perhaps upward thrust against the sides of the load, causing it to shift, perhaps quickly. The differential speed between the freight and opposing "100-mph DMU" would do the rest. My guess is that the fatal injuries occurred before the driver could substantially brake the train, but even the likely speed of the freight train could put substantial momentum on the cases, all or most of which would 'couple' into the structure of the carsides (and the passengers) before coming to a relative halt.
It regrettably sounds funny, but really isn't.
What?!!?
At least six passengers on board a train on the Great Belt route in Denmark were killed this morning when high winds blew cases of beer from a passing freight train into their passenger cars. The beer was being transported in curtain-s...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/01/02-wind-blown-beer-kills-six-on-danish-passenger-train
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
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