Employees at godstogoperatøren DB Cargo has for years been aware that there may be problems with the locking mechanisms on the carriages.
It is one of the conclusions of Havarikommissionens 181 pages long and the final report on the terrible train accident that happened on the great belt Bridge the 2. January of this year.
the Report was presented to the public at a news conference at the Sinatur Hotel in Nyborg on Wednesday.
the Accident killed eight people and injured 16 others, when a freight train from DB Cargo, which drove towards the island of Funen, passed an oncoming IC4 train at 7.30 in the morning.
A semi-trailer on to, if the locking mechanism was not locked, had torn himself loose in the very strong wind, so parts of the wagon hanging out over the side.
It hit the oncoming IC4-trains, then the two front wagons was heavily damaged.
Particularly the front, that was hit so sharply, that the whole of the left side of the cabin was gone. And just in the left side sat most of the victims who lost their lives or were injured in the collision.
If the locking mechanism, the so-called ‘kongetap’, to which attach the semi-trailer to the togdelen on to, had been properly locked, was dødsulykken i.e. probably not at all happened.
“the locking mechanism on the carriage at to was unlocked. It was a suspicion we had, which we shared with the relevant authorities, the very same evening, the accident happened,” says Bo Haaning, deputy head of the Accident investigation board and the investigator-in-charge of the tragic accident that happened on lavbroen close to Nyborg.
“a Few days later we made in the Aib together with DB Cargo a test of whether it could be ‘kongetappen’, which was not locked. The test confirmed our suspicions,” notes the investigator.
Bo Haaning adds in the same breath:
“It is very important to emphasize that before 2. January 2019, there was no one who thought that it was dangerous. For it is never happened before, that the cart is gone loose on the way. It is a several ton heavy semi-trailer, sitting down in the ‘pocket’ on a wagon. It is not dangerous – so it was that in any case no one believed.”
“Only when there 2. January is the combination of that it is not locked, that the trailer is empty and therefore relatively light compared to those that are loaded further down in the train, and so that it is blowing very strongly, it goes wrong. Only when the tragic accident happens, it goes up to a great many, it can actually be very dangerous,” he says.
Not only with DB Cargo, but also the people who load carriages at the Carlsberg brewery in Fredericia, denmark, has long been known that there can be problems with the locking mechanisms on the carriages.
But first the 2. January of this year, there will be serious consequences.
Christian Vesterager, head of division of Traffic, Construction and Housing, says that it is new for the agency, to the employees who work with the loading of the trains have long known that there can be problems with the locking mechanism.
A piece of information which the committee now brings forward to the police.
“We ask the DB Cargo to make a statement about it here. For us it’s not so much about who knew what when. The part is a police matter. For us, it is about the future. Our focus is on safety,” he says.
B. T. has talked with DB cargo’s communication director Jan Wildau. He praises the Havarikommissionens report, which he calls an extremely important piece of work that has already led to new security procedures.
On the employees ‘ knowledge that there have been problems with the locking mechanisms on the trains, he says:
“We have asked the staff and examined it internally. And we have no indications that there have not been acted on it, when they have been made aware of the problem,” says Jan Wildau.
