Dahlerau Train Disaster - Cause of The Accident

Cause of The Accident

The legal proceedings investigating the cause of the accident carried on for one year. The exact happenings could not be reproduced, as the dispatcher of the station died in a car accident shortly after the train crash. It was proven that the car accident was not caused by the dispatcher, ruling out suicide. The driver of the freight train, who survived the accident, testified in court that he saw a green light from the dispatcher's hand lantern, signalling him to pass through the station without stopping. The stations of the Wuppertal-Radevormwald branch line were not equipped with exit signals, so showing a green light would indicate the line being clear ahead.

The true causes of the accident was never fully clarified. It is generally accepted that the likely cause was some form of human error. Since the dispatcher died during the hearings, the case never went to court.

As a consequence of the incident, the Deutsche Bundesbahn removed the blind on the hand lanterns, which could previously be switched between showing a green and a red light. The accident also caused criticism of the light-weight construction of the railbus, whose units dated back to the 1950s. Their replacements, the DB Class 628 railcars that were built from the mid-1970s on, were constructed considerably more sturdily than the VT 95 railbuses.

After the investigation ended, the damaged railbus was dismantled on September 1, 1971. The engine of the freight train, which did not suffer major damage, was rebuilt and continued to be in service until 2001.