Failed Cooperation and Coincidence

On December 22, 1939, shortly after the start of World War II, the worst train accident in Germany to date occurred in the city of Genthin, Saxony-Anhalt, some 20 miles northeast of the city of Magdeburg. Due to a slower military train ahead, the D 10 express train coming from Berlin had increasingly been delayed. A warning signal perceived by the train driver of the D 10 at Genthin station prompted him to activate the emergency brake. Shortly afterwards, and already outside Genthin station, the D 10 came to a halt in the middle of the night. Less than two minutes later, at around 0:50 a.m., the express train D 180, also coming from Berlin but running on time, drove unbraked at about 60 mph into the D 10, which was overcrowded due to Christmas traffic. According to official sources, 186 people died as a result of the enormous impact; other sources speak of up to 400 deaths. Most of the casualties occurred in D 10. The D 180 locomotive was used even though its electromechanical train safety system had been removed. The driver of the D 180 survived and was sentenced to several years in prison in a subsequent criminal proceeding.

Situation, chains of errors and coincidence

If you look closely, the railway is a system of rule-enforced cooperation. A huge set of rules continuously enforces and controls railways' employees thus generally ensuring safe and punctual operations. In line with the system, a lack of willingness to cooperate is interpreted as a "risk" which, if it continues, is transferred to an operational "zero state". Trains are then automatically brought to a stop, for example, or new routes are automatically blocked in the signal box. The aim is to rule out coincidences.

So why did this accident happen anyway?

Because the system was not as closed as those involved implicitly assumed. The war triggered by Germany had made the railway part of military logistics. Military trains were given priority, locomotives and spare parts were in short supply due to the war, but passenger traffic was still supposed to continue as normal. The result: the railway system was put under stress and built-in safety redundancies were reduced. Operational emergency procedures had not been practiced, and the corresponding communication between those responsible was faulty or even incorrect. At the very end, the driver of the D 180 ran over at least one signal that showed "Stop!". The judges in the criminal proceedings ruled on this "human error" alone, but not on the influence of the situation at the time.

Another coincidence

On the very same day, another serious railway accident occurred in Markdorf at Lake Constance in Southern Germany. At around 10:20 p.m., 101 people were killed in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train on a single-track section. Here, too, a mix of deficiencies was the deciding factor: the lack of lighting on the trains due to the war, the passenger train not correctly listed in the timetable, the brakeman riding on the freight train not being in the place he was supposed to be. Each individual failure could have at least significantly reduced the consequences of the collision.

Resume: Due to general conditions and a significant lack of collaboration at least 287 people, possibly up to 500, were killed in two terrible train accidents in Germany on a single day in December 1939. Further 153 people were injured. It is understandable that these accidents did not fit into the Nazis' victory propaganda and were therefore not widely covered by the media at the time. But it is not understandable that there is almost no knowledge of both accidents today.