Four women and a 14-year-old from the region died and around 40 people were injured.
(Photo: dpa)
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Frankfurt After the train accident near Garmisch-Partenkirchen last Friday, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating three people on suspicion of negligent homicide. The accused are employees of Deutsche Bahn, said a spokeswoman for the Munich II public prosecutor on Tuesday at the request of the German Press Agency.
The regional train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Munich derailed shortly after departure on Friday afternoon. Four women and a 14-year-old from the region died and around 40 people were injured. One of the injured remains in critical condition. Among the women killed are two mothers from Ukraine who had fled to Bavaria with their children.
There is no precise information on the cause of the accident. The investigations are carried out by a special commission “Zug”. The Federal Bureau for Railway Accident Investigation (BEU) is also involved. Deutsche Bahn announced that it is currently unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation. “Of course we are doing everything we can to support the investigating authorities in clarifying the cause of the accident,” said a railway spokesman on Tuesday.
According to initial information, the BEU found no evidence of the train speeding too high. The previous data evaluations point in the direction of a technical defect on the train or on the route. According to the investigating authorities, they are concentrating on these two possibilities.
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There was speculation last Friday that an object on the rails had blocked the train. This could have caused the middle wagons to jump off the tracks. So far, however, no evidence of this has been found at the scene of the accident.
More: Train accident: Technical defect is the most likely scenario