Containers lie all over the site, wagons have been pushed into each other and jumped off the tracks. A police spokesman from Bochum said that a train accident on a private company site in Herne, in which no one was injured, caused “immense property damage” on Friday night. According to the terminal operations manager, the difficult clean-up and salvage work will probably take a long time. A rescue train from Deutsche Bahn had also been requested.
When driving on the premises of the container terminal, a train from the local logistics company Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen GmbH (WHE) drove onto the goods wagons that were standing there, said terminal manager Dirk Kapeller on Friday morning. The impact of the train on the wagons pushed them into each other and tipped them off the tracks. The train driver was able to jump off his locomotive in time so that nobody was injured. According to the police, no dangerous goods were transported in the wagons.
The cause of the accident was initially unclear. According to Kapeller, there are many indications of a technical defect. The train probably had no braking effect, said the terminal manager. According to his information, at least eight cars are almost completely destroyed. In addition, two crane tracks and several tracks were damaged. In the terminal, trains or wagons are usually loaded with the help of two large cranes. Journalists and photographers were not allowed onto the cordoned-off area in the morning.
The accident site is in the street at Westhafen 27, exactly between the Emscher and the Rhine-Herne Canal. There is a boathouse in the immediate vicinity. And just a stone’s throw away, the Cranger Kirmes, one of the largest folk festivals in Germany, officially starts this Friday, August 5th.
Since this is private property and no one was injured, the police, informed by the Herner fire department at around 2.40 a.m., withdrew after inspecting the scene of the accident. The Office for Occupational Safety and the district government in Arnsberg should take over further investigations.