Rail worker killed in train accident in Essen
A second rail worker was seriously injured when an ICE struck workers beside the track on Sunday evening.
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A rail worker was killed in an accident involving a passing ICE in the German city of Essen on Sunday evening. A colleague was seriously injured and taken to hospital; police said he was not in life-threatening danger.
The accident happened at around 11 p.m. in the Katernberg district, in northern Essen. According to police and the fire service, six Deutsche Bahn employees were carrying out work on the tracks when the train passed. Two of them were hit or suffered injuries in the collision.
The employee who died passed away at the scene. The injured colleague had to be removed from the track area by the fire service and was then taken to hospital. According to German media, the driver and others involved received support from crisis counsellors. It is not known whether they suffered physical injuries.
The precise circumstances are being investigated. Police want to establish, among other things, how the safety measures around the work were organised and how the employees and the train were positioned in relation to each other. According to a police spokesman, safety and warning systems were in place at the site, but it is not yet clear how they were used or why the accident was nevertheless able to happen.
According to dpa, the train was travelling through a section with a maximum speed limit of 160 kilometres per hour at the time of the accident. Police said there were initially no indications that the ICE was speeding. According to dpa, the train was towed away after the accident; the rail link was temporarily closed completely.
One track was reopened in the morning. As a result, some trains were diverted or delayed. The disruption in the Ruhr area may also affect travellers from the Netherlands. It is not known whether Dutch trains were directly affected by the incident. The investigation into the cause is continuing.
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Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The article’s core claims are confirmed by German fire service and police information as reported by Radio Essen and dpa. The cause is rightly described as unknown.
- confirmed A rail worker was killed in an accident involving an ICE in Essen. — Reported by Radio Essen and dpa. source
- confirmed A second rail worker was seriously injured and taken to hospital. — Reported by Radio Essen and dpa. source
- confirmed Six employees were working on the tracks. — Mentioned in Radio Essen’s reporting. source
- confirmed The track was temporarily closed and later partially reopened. — Reported by dpa in its account of the handling of rail traffic. source
- confirmed The cause of the accident has not yet been established. — The police investigation is under way, according to both sources. source
Editor's note
The fatality, the seriously injured colleague, the location, the time and the temporary disruption to rail services are certain. The cause and the precise operation of the safety measures have not yet been established.Sources
- Tödlicher Unfall in Essen: ICE erfasst Gleisarbeiter — Radio Essen
- Gleisarbeiter stirbt bei Unfall mit ICE in Essen — t-online/dpa
More on this in Dutch media
- NRC — „essen duitsland”
- NU.nl — „essen duitsland”
- De Telegraaf — „essen duitsland”