According to DPA information, charges have been brought against three railway employees after the fatal train accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the summer of 2022. The “Bild” newspaper first reported about it. The investigators accuse them of, among other things, negligent homicide. The Munich II public prosecutor’s office did not want to comment.
In the accident on June 3, 2022, a regional train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Munich derailed – five people died and 78 were injured. According to an interim report from the Federal Office for Railway Accident Investigation, damaged concrete sleepers caused the accident.
In the interim report, the accident investigators identify a “defect in the superstructure” of the railway line as the primary cause of the derailment of the regional train. The prestressed concrete sleepers laid at the scene of the accident showed damage, which led to the so-called rail supports as links between the rail and the concrete breaking away. The railway has announced that it will replace several hundred thousand concrete sleepers after the accident.
It has been speculated several times that a warning was not passed on before the accident because of a problem at the later accident site. According to media reports, including from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, a corresponding report from a train driver is said to have not been passed on. It was said that the train driver noticed something “extraordinary”.
Initially, five railway employees were investigated. In two cases, however, the proceedings were discontinued.
