ICE captures group of track workers - man dies, colleague is seriously injured

A track worker died in a serious rail accident in Essen. A group of six employees were on a section of Deutsche Bahn track late on Sunday evening when two of them were hit by an ICE train.

The emergency services that were alerted were ultimately only able to determine the death of one of the two people, as the fire department announced. The other employee was seriously injured and was rescued from the track area onto the street using a turntable ladder. The person was then taken to hospital. Emergency pastors and a federal police helicopter were also on site during the approximately two-hour operation.

Impairments in rail traffic

When working on the track, there are regular visual and acoustic warning signals for the track workers, said the police spokesman. The required safety devices were present at the scene of the accident. Now it must be clarified why the accident still occurred.

According to Deutsche Bahn, there is a speed limit of 160 kilometers per hour on this section of the route. So far there is no indication that the train could have been too fast, said the police spokesman.

The route between Gelsenkirchen main station and Essen-Altenessen is still closed due to the accident, a railway spokeswoman said this morning. "The clean-up work is still ongoing. The damaged train is no longer in place."

Due to the closure, there will continue to be disruptions to rail traffic. Affected long-distance trains would be rerouted for the route between Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg. For regional transport, travelers should inform themselves about alternative routes in the rail media.