A freight train loaded with cement derailed in Geseke, west of Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia – killing the train driver. It was initially unclear whether there was another person on the freight train on Sunday. According to police, the dead train driver was a 30-year-old from Warstein in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Late in the evening, the police requested a helicopter with a thermal imaging camera to search the seven-kilometer route for another person as a precaution, a police spokesman said. The Soest district police authority later announced that no other person had been identified.
The background to the helicopter operation was a video that the police became aware of during the operation, “in which a person was sitting on a carriage of the train.” There was no further information about this in the evening. The freight train set off from a cement plant shortly before the accident.
Cause still unclear
According to the police, the Dortmund fire department used a rescue crane to try to lift the tank car under which the dead man lay in the evening. It turned out that this would require considerable technical effort. A specialist company was therefore requested.
The train accident occurred at a junction on a main line, as the federal police announced. It was still unclear why the freight train derailed late in the evening.
According to the fire department’s initial findings, both the locomotive and several wagons jumped off the tracks. According to an initial assessment, there was no acute danger to the population, as a spokesman for the fire department said. Eyewitnesses to the train accident were looked after.
Pictures from the scene of the accident show badly damaged wagons lying on their sides. A fence is also damaged. Deutsche Bahn expressed its deep condolences to the relatives of the accident victim.
