GERMANY: As the investigation into the fatal magnetic train crash continues, the inventor insists his brainchild is safe

Record ID: 555883

  • Title: GERMANY: As the investigation into the fatal magnetic train crash continues, the inventor insists his brainchild is safe
  • Date: 24th September 2006
  • Summary: (W3) LATHEN, EMSLAND, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 24, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE OF PEOPLE WALKING TOWARDS PROTESTANT CHURCH IN LATHEN AS CHURCH BELL TOLLS PEOPLE WALKING INTO CHURCH CHURCH AND NOTICEBOARD IN FOREGROUND MAYOR OF LATHEN KARL-HEINZ WEBER WALKING OUT OF TOWNHALL GERMAN FLAG FLYING AT HALF-MAST OUTSIDE LATHEN TOWNHALL (SOUNDBITE) (German) MAYOR OF LATHEN KARL-HEINZ WEBER, SAYING: "As before the mood here is subdued and sad, people are sad, people's thoughts are with the victims and with those left behind." WIDE OF WEBER TALKING TO JOURNALISTS CLOSE OF CANDLES AND PULL OUT TO SHOW TRAIN TRACK
  • Embargoed: 9th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAB39LHFAV000GAIJVC8WU4W6KD
  • Story Text: The clean-up was still continuing on Sunday (September 24) at the site of the crash between a high-tech magnetic train and a maintenance vehicle in the northwestern German district of Emsland which killed 23 people on Friday. People in the town of Lathen and the surrounding area are trying to come to terms with the accident.
    The state prosecutor Alexander Retemeyer said that it was unclear why the train had been allowed to enter a section of track when the maintenance vehicle was still on the track, but added that the accident was due to human error.
    Meanwhile, the German inventor of the train, Hans Georg Raschbichler, insists that the "Transrapid's" technology is safe.
    In an interview with Reuters Television, Raschbichler expressed his regret for the accident. He said it had shocked him but he insisted the technology was safe.
    "The accident in Emsland is an accident on a test stretch and one must not blame the accident on the system," he said.
    Raschbichler explained that the train has a safety system, where the train can only enter certain sections of track once they have been 'unlocked'. This system prevents the train from travelling into sections of track it is not supposed to travel in, and is automatically stopped should it enter a part of track that it has not been permitted to enter. This also means that a second train should not come into contact with the Transrapid.
    Raschbichler, from Munich, named the "father of the magnetic train" is head of Transrapid International (TRI), a joint venture between German industrial firms Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp, which developed the costly Maglev train. This train set a speed record of 450 km per hour (280 miles per hour) in 1993.
    The train, which rides on a track supported by concrete stilts around 5 metres above ground, was not derailed in the accident, officials said, but its height above ground had made the rescue operation difficult.
    On Sunday morning, as local people attended church in Lathen, the town's mayor, Karl-Heinz Weber, said that the townspeople's thoughts were with the families of the victims.
    "The mood here is subdued and sad," he added.
    At the crash site candles were burning as a memorial for the victims.
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