Conclusions of the preliminary report on the accident on Storebelt (Denmark) on the 2nd of January 2019 – Danish Accident Investigation Board.

The published Danish report is available below. The following text is a not official English translation of the conclusions.

The Danish Accident Investigation Board finds it likely that the trailer’s king-pin was not locked in the stool on the basis of the following:

  • There was no abnormal damage to either the cone or the locking mechanism of the stool.
  • Initial investigations of the stool showed that the springs could not pull in the handles by their own force.
  • Testing of the stool, using a king-pin mounted in one piece of the involved semi-trailer, confirmed that the springs did not fully pull the handles at their own power and that the stool was not locked when the handles were not fully retracted.

Testing of the stool, using a king-pin mounted in one piece of the involved semi-trailer, confirmed that the springs did not fully pull the handles at their own power and that the stool was not locked when the handles were not fully retracted.

  • Tests using similarly undamaged semi-trailers confirmed the above test.
  • On the freight train involved, two more semi-trailers were found that were not locked in their stools.
  • Testing on some other wagons showed similar examples of stools that did not lock the semi-trailers.

Preliminary calculations indicated that a wind speed of 21.8 m/s could be sufficient to cause the trailer to overturn the pocket wagon, provided that the king-pin had not been locked in the stool.

  • The maximum measured wind speed of 21.6 m/s around the time of the accident indicated that there could have been local wind conditions on the west bridge that would have been powerful enough to overturn the trailer of the pocket wagon. Observations of sparks along the acceptance and finding of parts of the trailer indicate that the trailer was not properly loaded onto the pocket wagon before the collision. “

The Accident Investigation Board is now continuing the safety investigation of the circumstances of the accident.

JTilgrim

Communication and Administration Officer at ScanMed RFC.