The clean-up work in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is ongoing. The cause of the accident, which killed five people, is still unclear.
After rescuing the victims from the scene of the train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the helpers are now concentrating on the clean-up work. The police did not assume on Saturday that more dead people would be found.
But it wasn’t ruled out. The train accident – one of the worst in recent years – killed five people and injured more than 40 others. In addition to cranes, other heavy recovery equipment is to be used for the clean-up work, such as a 250-ton rail crane from Wanne-Eickel in the Ruhr area. Among other things, this should be used to lift the locomotive back onto the track, as a railway spokesman explained. The work is likely to take some time.
According to the police, the main road next to the tracks is expected to remain closed on one side until the middle of the week. Traffic in Sindelsdorf (Weilheim-Schongau district) will be diverted from Autobahn 95 in the direction of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
It is still unclear why the regional train jumped off the tracks on Friday afternoon shortly after leaving for Munich. There had never been a collision with another vehicle before.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), who visited the scene of the accident with Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz on Saturday, promised that the accident would be dealt with extensively. According to Bavaria’s Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU), all local experts were of the opinion “that the most likely cause should be a technical defect on the track or on the train”.
