Three charged over German Transrapid rail deaths
Reuters: 30 Aug 2007,
OSNABRUECK, Germany -- State prosecutors in Germany have charged three people with manslaughter for their role in a high-speed train crash which killed 23 people and injured 10 last year.
Prosecutors in the western city of Osnabrueck said on Thursday three workers at a test track for the Transrapid magnetic levitation train would be tried for involuntary manslaughter and causing bodily injury through negligence.
The deaths occurred when a Transrapid train smashed into a maintenance vehicle on a stretch of the test track in the Emsland district of western Germany on September 22 last year. Investigators said human error was to blame for the accident.
The costly train, which set what was then a speed record of 450 km per hour (280 miles per hour) in 1993, was developed by Transrapid International, a joint venture between German industrial firms Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp.