BERLIN (AP) – Authorities in Germany said Thursday they are investigating whether one of the train drivers involved in a fatal collision this week ran a stop signal.
One man, an Afghan refugee in his 20s, died, and dozens of people were injured in the crash Monday on a commuter train line in Ebenhausen-Schaeftlarn, south of Munich.
Germany news agency dpa quoted prosecutors in the Bavarian capital as saying it was too soon to know whether technical failure or human error caused the collision.
The 54-year-old train driver who is believed to have gone past a stop signal has so far declined to comment to investigators.
A train dispatcher was sentenced to 3½ years in prison over a 2016 crash in nearby Bad Aibling that killed 11 people. The dispatcher admitted playing a game on his phone shortly before two trains collided on a single-track line.
TOPSHOT – Members of the emergency services work at the scene of an S-bahn commuter train accident where one person was killed and more than ten injured in a collision between two suburban trains at Schaeftlarn in a district of Munich, southern Germany on Februray 14, 2022. (Photo by MICHAELA REHLE / AFP) (Photo by MICHAELA REHLE/AFP via Getty Images)