Eschede Zug 884 (2008)

On the morning of June 3, 1998, ICE 884, the “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen,” sets off from Munich Central Station, bound for Hamburg. The passengers are travelling on holiday or on business, and everything seems normal. What nobody knows is that a wheel tire on the front section of the train is badly worn, and the defect went unnoticed during maintenance. The disaster strikes near Eschede, a small town in the Lüneburg Heath between Hanover and Hamburg: the damaged wheel tire breaks and pierces the floor of a compartment. The passenger sitting there and his family notice it, and other passengers feel the train jolt, but in the confusion no one thinks to pull the emergency brake. Then the metal rod lodged in the floor also switches a set of points. The train derails and crashes into a road bridge, which collapses. The front carriages pass through the bridge unharmed, but the rear carriages pile up on top of one another. A few minutes later, the first emergency responders arrive at the scene, aided by many willing volunteers from Eschede. Many passengers, in shock, simply walk away. A disaster alert is issued in the region. Much of the train is badly damaged or almost completely destroyed. Pieces of metal and luggage are scattered across the tracks, power cables crackle, some carriages have partly buried themselves in the ground, and so on. Over the following hours and days, emergency doctors, fire departments, and disaster-response teams work to recover the dead and injured and take the injured to hospitals. The relatives of those involved in the crash, having heard about the disaster on radio and television, desperately try to get information. Many of them travel to Eschede. In a gymnasium, the injured are treated or prepared for transport to hospital; the people of Eschede help there in any way they can, too. Lists are posted in the gymnasium showing where the injured have been taken and which hospitals they are in. The names of the dead are also listed there. 101 people died in the Eschede ICE disaster, and at least 105 people were injured, some of them seriously. No one wanted to take responsibility for the accident, and no one was convicted in court. Deutsche Bahn paid the relatives 30,000 Deutsche marks for each person who died.