2009 Lößnitzgrundbahn head-on collision
Locomotive No 20 after the accident.
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| Date | 12 September 2009 |
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| Time | 17:45 local time (15:45 UTC) |
| Location | Between Friedewald and Friedewald Bad stations |
| Coordinates | 51°07′58″N 13°39′27″E / 51.13278°N 13.65750°ECoordinates: 51°07′58″N 13°39′27″E / 51.13278°N 13.65750°E |
| Country | Germany |
| Rail line | Lößnitzgrundbahn |
| Operator | Sächsische Dampfeisenbahngesellschaft mbH |
| Type of incident | Head-on collision |
| Cause | Crew error: train leaving station on single-track line without permission |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | Two steam-hauled passenger trains |
| Passengers | c250 |
| Deaths | 0 |
| Injuries | 121, including 4 serious |
| Damage | Severe damage to two locomotives and twelve carriages |
The Friedewald train collision was a railway accident on 12 September 2009 in Saxony, Germany. It involved two steam hauled passenger trains of the narrow gauge heritage Radebeul–Radeburg railway (German: Lößnitzgrundbahn). One hundred and twenty-one people were injured, four of them seriously. Substantial damage was sustained by the locomotives and rolling stock.
On the weekend of 12–13 September 2009, the 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) gauge Lößnitzgrundbahn was holding a gala to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the railway. Four train compositions (three of them were extra trains from various other narrow-gauge railways) were operating on the line as part of the gala, performing fifty-five train journeys on the line instead of the usual twenty-eight. Some of the trains were assembled to represent distinct periods in the railway's history, one of them recreating a train from 1955 used rolling stock from the Mansfelder Bergwerksbahn in Saxony-Anhalt. The last and a resident train were later involved in the head-on collision.
Another accident had already happened earlier the afternoon. A double-headed train hauled by Saxon-Meyer 0-4-4-0Ts Nos.145 and 176 was in collision with a BMW car at an open level crossing in Radebeul. The result of this accident was that the planned timetable had to be abandoned. The Lößnitzgrundbahn is single track with passing loops at some stations. Because of the schedule disruption, trains were not passing each other at the planned locations.
At 17:45 local time, two passenger trains were involved in a head-on collision on the single track at between Friedewald Haltepunkt and Friedewald Bad stations of the Moritzburg municipality, approximately halfway between the streets Karlstraße and An der Siedlung. The train hauled by No. 99 1789-9 was on a regular scheduled service train while that hauled by No. 20 was one of the extra gala trains. Around 250 passengers were travelling on the two trains. Both trains were travelling at a speed of about 25 kilometres per hour (16 mph), and entered a single-tracked long turn in a narrow, forested valley from opposite directions. The drivers were able to notice one another's trains only at short distance, and while both drivers promptly started braking, the trains collided with a speed of 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph). Five carriages derailed.
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