The Rüsselsheim train disaster occurred on February 2, 1990, on the Main Railway near the Rüsselsheim station in West Germany. With 17 persons killed and 145 injured the train collision is amongst the most serious in rapid transit.

Account of the accident

On February 2, 1990, at 16:42 a

Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter rail, commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The ...

train arrived at Rüsselsheim station. The mass rapid transit DB Class 420 train was on its way from

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

on the S14 route. The station is equipped with distant signals before the station platforms and stop signals after them. The Indusi inductor system provides a level of Train protection. As he approached the station, the train driver acknowledged the warning of the distant signal (1000 Hz Indusi), but subsequently forgot about it after carrying out platform duties. A second DB Class 420 train was approaching from Frankfurt. However, its usual platform was already occupied on this occasion and so it had to be routed to another platform on the other side of the station. This required the train to cross the path of the first train some way before the platforms. Both trains were fully packed during rush hour with an estimate of 500 passengers per train. Although the next signal was at danger a few hundred meters beyond the station, the driver accelerated quickly as he departed from the platform, and the powerful train easily supported that acceleration. Although both trains had activated the emergency brake—also enforced by an automated train stop (2000 Hz Indusi) on the main signal—the collision occurred at a speed estimated to be about 40 to 70 km/h. The impact was so intense that one of the control cars was lifted upright into the air then fell sideways into a nearby car park.

Aftermath

The train driver was sentenced to ten months probation and a penalty of 2500 Deutschmark; he never drove trains again. The train porter dispatching the train was acquitted as his duty was to ensure that all the doors were closed; he was not required to remind the driver that the next signal was at danger. The traditional Indusi train protection system does not enforce any speed restrictions. With the stop signal put at a

braking distance A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Background ...

the safety overlap depends on an assumed maximum speed and weight of the train. Although operation regulations imposed a maximum speed after a distant signal warning it was not enforced. This disaster led to the extension and rollout of PZB90 – in the final modernisation program of 1995 the

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

equipped 10,000 trains with it (1000 Hz Indusi enforcing a maximum of 45 km/h) and more than 10,000 additional speed restrictions were installed (500 Hz Indusi enforcing a maximum of 25 km/h). All trains in Germany were required to be equipped with PZB90 by 1998.

External links

Information
about the accident on et420-online.de
Report
about the accident on the website of the newspaper Darmstädter Echo
Newspaper article: „Ein schwarzer Tag für Rüsselsheim"
on the website of Allgemeinen Zeitung Mainz of January 30, 2010
Information
about the accident on the website of the newspaper

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (''FR'') is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. The ''Rundschaus editorial stance is social liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-wa ...

S-Bahn Unglück von Rüsselsheim - Für Sekunden ist es totenstill (S-Bahn accident of Rüsselsheim - Dead silence for seconds)
from Feuerwehr Rüsselsheim {{DEFAULTSORT:Russelsheim train disaster Train collisions in Germany 1990 in West Germany Railway accidents in 1990 Train disaster Accidents and incidents involving Deutsche Bundesbahn Railway accidents involving a signal passed at danger Rail accidents caused by a driver's error 1990s in Hesse February 1990 in Germany