SECURITY RELIABILITY DEVELOPMENT
Civil Safety
demanded profession
Department of Civil and Industrial Safety of National Aviation University
trains high quality professionals
of Civil Safety
Railway accident near Eschede
On June 3, 1998, the InterCity express train, over 400 meters long and with a capacity of 750 passengers, raced across the plains from Munich to Hamburg at a speed of 200 km / h. At a distance of 6 km from m Eshede on the axis of the first car, the wheel band failed, the steel ring began to break, hitting the rail. 300 m before the crossing of the road with the transport overpass, the destroyed node crashed into a railway arrow. A devastating blow broke the chain of cars and scattered them. Wagon №4 flew off the road to a nearby forest, wagon №5 hit the structure of the overpass and was torn to pieces. Wagon №6 finally knocked down the trestle supports. Several cars derailed and were thrown off the tracks, some collided. As a result - a terrible mixture of soil, concrete, steel, aluminum ...
Arriving first, firefighters began rescue operations. They took over the general management, the organization of interaction with the help services, the rear, the supply, and finally the public relations and the media. The first report of the tragedy - confusing and unclear - was received by the police at about 11 o'clock by phone "110". They immediately alerted the command posts of the Red Cross, rescuers and fire brigade, the sanitary service in Celle, as well as the rescue services of three neighboring districts - Hanover, Gifhorn and Ulzen. At 11:07 the first fire truck in Eschede was already at the scene. What I saw was impressive - the accumulation of wreckage of cars, overpasses, moans, screams, calls for help.
The district fire chief on the way (the wreckage of the overpass and cars were scattered at a distance of up to 6 km) ordered to sound the alarm for all, without exception, the crews of fire engines in the district of Celle. Helicopter units were brought into combat readiness. Their radio talks were heard at the land fire school, and her instructor asked the ministry if they should go for help. Having received "good" - and a training course of Oberbrandmeysters in full - 37 people, and also firefighters-paramedics, - left in Eshed.
At 11:19 a long-awaited message was received from Deutsche Bah from the railwaymen - the contact network at the scene of the accident was de-energized.
At 11:45 an operational headquarters will be set up to provide assistance to victims and coordinate work. Forces and means are accumulating, the first fire brigades with special tools, technical assistance services, two powerful truck cranes of private companies, two transport and rescue helicopters arrive. Locals rescued people side by side with firefighters. For some time, the surviving passengers were shocked. Extremely confused, frightened, they still gradually came to their senses. And now one of them stood in line with the volunteer helpers, followed by the second, third ...
But most passengers used every opportunity to leave. The destroyed overpass made it difficult to rationally place the arriving equipment. Fire brigades with the help of locals made their way to the area allotted to them through the yards and fields. The victims were placed in tents, in the warehouse, in the gym. Doctors - an hour later there were already 50 of them at the crash site - provided first aid and prepared for evacuation. Initially, the seriously wounded were transported by 7 Bundeswehr helicopters, but due to the fact that their propellers raise clouds of dust and their garbage was relocated.
Helicopters of emergency technical assistance joined the work. Life was counted for seconds, and as it turned out, a quick evacuation saved many. And the bodies of the dead are not taken out in the first hours of work - they took care of the living first of all. The situation was greatly complicated by the fact that working at a breakneck pace, firefighters did not have data on the exact number of passengers who were on the train before the crash.
It turned out that the strong outer skin of express cars is not easy to open: hydraulic shears, abrasive wheels of the electric saw slid helplessly on the smooth surface of reinforced aluminum. And it was decided not to cut, but to break and punch, but it was possible with great difficulty, although a modern tool was used. Holes were punched in several places of the case to save time. But, having got inside cars, most often were convinced that it is impossible to help any more. Many passengers died from deformities of the head and chest, in other words, were crushed and flattened.
By 12:05 p.m., the management of the rescue and other urgent works passed to the district fire chief. Technical assistance and a professional fire brigade from Hanover, technical assistance from Bergen were involved. The first transport with the wounded was sent.
Along the Bundesbana № 191, tents were set up to accommodate all those who arrived, additional forces and volunteer residents, and some of the wounded were moved to a gymnasium located 270 meters away. The professional fire brigade of Hildesheim presented a tunnel rescue train to the working firefighters. Combat units on both sides of the flyover have finally received their own mobile radio channels.
At 13:00 at the crash site it was determined that the already available forces and means of firefighters, rescuers and volunteer helpers are enough: all the victims pulled out of the cars and the ruins were moved to a safe place. The work continued. The ruins of the flyover stretched three Bundeswehr tanks. The Mashen Railway Fire Brigade and Hanover firefighters worked with a 40-ton crane.
At 1:45 p.m., the command post ordered the collection of corpses, many of which were mutilated beyond recognition. At 14:07 the chief doctor of emergency medical care ordered the withdrawal of all Bundeswehr helicopters. At 15:00 all 87 victims were taken to various clinics in northern Germany.
The assembled headquarters requested information on the work of all units, and as a result, most of the fire brigades and rescue services of the surrounding districts were withdrawn .
Particular attention after 15.30 was paid to further thorough inspection of the ruins. At that time, the preparatory work for the demolition of several parts of the overpass was completed. At 17.00, the headquarters received generalized data on people who worked at the crash site and equipment. 600 firefighters on 110 units of various equipment, 270 rescuers on 88 units of equipment, 370 employees of sanitary service on 88 cars, 100 doctors, 160 policemen on 25 cars, 210 soldiers on 28 cars, 140 employees of technical assistance on 16 cars and 170 frontier guards worked here. on 37 cars. In addition, the headquarters management had to constantly coordinate the actions of more than 2,000 volunteer helpers from a population of 400 vehicles. And, nevertheless, the skeleton of rescuers was made by firefighters.
Thanks to their high professionalism, many lives have been saved, and material and environmental damage has been minimized. And although many fire crews from neighboring counties and communities left the site of the tragedy in the evening, the demolition of destroyed structures and debris continued at a rapid pace. Bundeswehr tanks and powerful cranes continued to stretch the multi-ton concrete blocks of the destroyed overpass, which pressed three distorted cars. By midnight, 78 bodies had been removed and taken to the Hanover Medical Institute, where they had been carefully identified. It was not easy. Even relatives often could not recognize their loved ones in mutilated, dismembered bodies. The vast majority of the remains could only be identified by DNA. This work lasted a week and a half.
On June 4, 1998, more than 200 journalists gathered for a briefing. To the main question - what is the cause of the accident - experts were able to give a firm answer: a broken wheel rim.
Psychologists and clergymen worked in the gymnasium of the gymnasium, which originally served as a gathering place for the wounded, trying to help the relatives of the victims to find at least a relative mental balance. The second night of work was extremely tiring for everyone physically and mentally. It was especially difficult for crane drivers, who have been carrying out jewelry-accurate disassembly of debris for 30 (!) Hours. There were disagreements between the railway authorities and the management of the headquarters - the former were in favor of further uninterrupted continuation of work, the latter insisted on a pause. However, the professional experience of firefighters prevailed - rescuers got a break from 2:45 to 9:30 am.
In addition, experts reported complications in the nature of work on the site of the former overpass, which must be conducted very carefully and cautiously, preferably in daylight. The decision turned out to be correct - the ground, concrete and parts of the train were mixed here so that even at a depth of 4.5 m the remains of passengers' luggage were found. And on Friday morning in the rubble on the slope of the railway we managed to find a few more corpses - probably they were thrown out of the cars when hitting the overpass. Disassembling the remains of the last parts of the flyover, three more corpses were found. And finally, the last of the items found were registered and handed over to police, and firefighters began collecting scrap metal, garbage and debris from a large area. On Saturday at 6:42 the scene of the accident was handed over by police firefighters - the first to arrive here and work hard, the firefighters were the last of all, giving all their strength to save people, left it.
In November 1998, a symposium was held in Celle, during which all aspects of the tragedy in Eschede were comprehensively considered. Moreover, it was noted that predicting this kind and scale of disasters with the help of a computer has extremely limited capabilities due to a large number of factors that complicate it.
It was also said about the shortcomings, some of which the German fire brigade took on its own. Namely:
The mobile radio network in the area of operations was extremely congested not without the "help" of mobile communications of numerous media representatives.
Priority negotiation channels were absent here, as, however, during the work of firefighters during the so-called Oder disaster.
At the time of the disaster, the management of the technical rescue service of the Celle Land District had neither telephones nor faxes.
Very young volunteers from the locals worked at the scene, which caused them significant psychological trauma.
Both the heads of the action areas and the chiefs of staff did not have identification marks on their clothes.
On-site operational meetings should be shorter.
During the evacuation, no transfer and transport protocols were conducted on the victims.
Special documents confirming their participation in the disaster site had to be prepared for the employers of volunteer helpers.
Despite the official closure of the airspace over the crash site, for some time there was a private helicopter with members of the press on board. There were cases when journalists paid local children for directing tricksters to the crash site.
The headquarters and the press office worked side by side, which greatly hindered both.
The management of the railway for a long time denied information about the event, which gave rise to many rumors. Despite the ban, private individuals took photos at the crash site.
Work on the aftermath of the Eschede disaster has shown that professional and voluntary German fire brigades have a high degree of readiness for various actions in the most difficult conditions and can successfully carry out their work together with rescue services or replacing the latter.
A memorial to the victims was unveiled on June 11, 2001 in Eschede in the presence of family members of the victims, honorary citizens of Germany, as well as volunteers who took part in the dismantling of fragments of the train at the crash site. In addition, 101 cherry trees were planted along the railway (1 in honor of each victim). Memorial to those killed in the crash near Eschede, located near the crash site Obelisk with the names of those killed in the train crash near Eschede
