Feb 6, 2000 - 10:00 AM

Night Train Crashes in Germany, at Least Seven Dead By Joachim Sondermann Associated Press Writer

BRUEHL, Germany (AP) - An overnight express train derailed at a switch south of Cologne early Sunday, killing at least seven passengers and injuring more than 100, authorities said. Police said the train may have been speeding. The sleeper train carrying about 300 passengers had been traveling from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Basel, Switzerland, when it hurtled off the tracks in the small town of Bruehl, German railways spokesman Manfred Ziegerath said.

One car flipped onto its side, and another was crushed against a steel post.

Scores of rescue workers using heavy equipment and search dogs broke open mangled blue coaches to comb the debris for survivors and bodies.

As day broke over the floodlit scene, rescue crews prepared to lift wrecked coaches, under which police said more dead might be found.

Lead police investigator Winrich Granitzka said the nine-car train apparently had been going too fast. "From the looks of it, it's rather unlikely that the train was observing the ... speed limit" of 25 mph at the site, he told reporters at the scene.

West German Radio reported the train was going 65 mph; Granitzka declined to comment on the report.

The train's engine toppled over an embankment, smashed through a garage and into a house, but the people inside were unscathed, police said.

Police said at least seven people died in the accident and some 130 people were injured, 20 of them seriously.

Doctors had to amputate one man's leg to free him from the wreckage.

The train driver was not injured, but was in shock, police said.

"I was already sleeping and then a big crash woke me up," said a woman who lives about 300 feet from the crash site. "I've never heard so many sirens." She declined to give her name.

Witnesses said many young people were among the travelers. Passengers included Dutch, British, Japanese, Americans and Italians, Granitzka said. A 50-member ski tour group from the Netherlands that suffered no injuries continued its trip later Sunday.

The train had just left Cologne main station on one of Germany's main international routes when it derailed at 12:13 a.m. local time after crossing a series of switches to avoid track work, police said.

Ziegerath said the train left the tracks while switching back onto the main line.

Railway authorities and prosecutors were investigating the cause of the accident, Germany's deadliest since the June 1998 crash of a high-speed IntercityExpress that killed 101 people at Eschede. The cause of that crash was found to have been a broken wheel.

Sunday's crash seemed certain to revive questions about German rail safety lingering since the Eschede disaster. The railways set up a telephone information hotline.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), February 06, 2000

Answers

Sorry Dee. Missed your post. Need more coffee...

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), February 06, 2000.

Isn't it odd, jst about every time that there is a train derailment / wreck. There seems to be a near by rail switching system! Could it be????? No! We dare not say it! For TPTB ave delivered a edict from on high that Y2K is beaten, and it is behind us. Shhhuh!!! But is it really, really over with?

"As for me...I shall finsh the Game"!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), February 06, 2000.