Editing Eschede train disaster (section)

==Timeline==
[[File:401 551 AW Nürnberg.jpg|thumb|Rear power car ''401&nbsp;551'' of the crashed train]]

===Wheel fracture===
[[ICE 1]] trainset 51 was travelling as ICE&nbsp;884 "''[[Wilhelm Röntgen|Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen]]''" from [[Munich]] to [[Hamburg]]. The train was scheduled to stop at [[Augsburg]], [[Nürnberg]], [[Würzburg]], [[Fulda]], [[Kassel]], [[Göttingen]], and [[Hanover]] before reaching Hamburg.<ref name="Seconds">"Derailment at Eschede" ("High Speed Train Wreck"). ''[[Seconds From Disaster]]''.</ref> After stopping in Hanover at 10:30, the train continued its journey northwards. About {{convert|130|km|-1}} and forty minutes away from Hamburg<ref name="Seconds" />{{Rp|0:05}} and {{Convert|6|km|spell=in}} south of central Eschede, near [[Celle]], the steel [[Railway tire|tyre]] on a wheel on the third axle of the first car split and peeled away from the wheel, having been weakened by metal fatigue. The momentum of this caused the steel tyre to flatten and it was catapulted upwards, penetrating the floor of the train carriage where it remained stuck.<ref name="Seconds" />

The tyre embedded in the carriage was seen by Jörg Dittmann, one of the passengers in Coach 1. The tyre went through an armrest in his compartment between the seats where his wife and son were sitting. Dittmann took his wife and son out of the damaged coach and went to inform a conductor in the third coach.

The conductor, who noticed vibrations in the train, told Dittmann that company policy required him to investigate the circumstances before pulling the emergency brake. The conductor took one minute to reach the site in Coach 1. According to Dittmann, the train had begun to sway from side to side by then. The conductor did not show willingness to stop the train immediately, and wished to first investigate the incident more thoroughly. Dittmann could not find an emergency brake in the corridor and had not noticed that there was an emergency brake handle in his own compartment.<ref>"Eschede Zug 884".</ref> The train crashed just as Dittmann was about to show the armrest puncture to the conductor.<ref name="Seconds" />{{Rp|13:12}}

===Derailment===
As the train passed over the first of two points, the embedded tyre slammed against the guide rail of the points, pulling it from the railway ties. This guide rail also penetrated the floor of the car, becoming embedded in the vehicle and lifting the [[bogie]] off the rails. At 10:59 local time (08:59 [[UTC]]), one of the now-derailed wheels struck the points lever of the second switch, changing its setting. The rear axles of car number 3 were switched onto a parallel track, and the entire car was thereby thrown sideways into the [[pier (architecture)|piers]] supporting a {{Convert|300|t|adj=on}} roadway [[Bridge|overpass]], destroying them.<ref name="Seconds" />

Car number 4, likewise derailed by the violent deviation of car number 3 and still travelling at {{convert|200|km/h|mph|round=5}}, passed intact under the bridge and rolled onto the embankment immediately behind it, striking several trees before coming to a stop. Two [[Deutsche Bahn]] railway workers who had been working near the bridge were killed instantly when the derailed car crushed them. The breaking of the car couplings caused the automatic [[Emergency brake (train)|emergency brakes]] to engage, and the mostly undamaged first three cars came to a stop.<ref name="Seconds" />

===Bridge collapse===
The front power car and coaches one and two cleared the bridge. The third carriage hit the bridge, causing it to collapse, but cleared the bridge. Coach four cleared the bridge, moved away from the track onto an embankment, and hit a group of trees before stopping. The bridge pieces crushed the rear half of coach five. The restaurant coach, six, was crushed to a {{Convert|15|cm|4=0|adj=on}} height. With the track now obstructed completely by the collapsed bridge, the remaining cars [[Jackknifing|jackknifed]] into the rubble in a zig-zag pattern: car 7, the service car, the restaurant car, the three first-class cars numbered 10 to 12, and the rear power car all derailed and slammed into the pile.<ref name="Seconds" />{{Rp|34:25}} The resulting chaos was likened to a partially collapsed [[folding ruler]]. An automobile was also found in the wreckage; it belonged to the two railway technicians killed, and was probably parked on the bridge before the accident.<ref name="Seconds" />{{Rp|36:20}}

Separated from the rest of the carriages, the detached front power car coasted for a further three kilometers (two miles) until it came to a stop after passing Eschede railway station.

[[File:401 051 Eschede-Tk.jpg|thumb|Front power car 401 051 at Munich in August 2007. The power car coasted down the track until it came to a halt a short distance after Eschede railway station. Having sustained only minor damage during the accident, it was repaired and returned to service.]]

The crash produced a sound that witnesses later described as "startling", "horribly loud", and "like a plane crash". People living nearby, alerted by the sound, were the first to arrive at the scene; Erika Karl, the first, photographed the site. She said that, upon hearing the noise, her husband initially believed there had been an aircraft accident. After the accident, eight of the ICE carriages occupied an area slightly longer than the length of a single carriage.<ref name="Seconds" />{{Rp|34:20}}

At 11:02, the local police declared an [[Emergency management|emergency]]. At 11:07, as the magnitude of the disaster quickly became apparent and this was elevated to "major emergency". At 12:30 the [[Celle (district)|Celle district]] government declared a "[[Disaster#Transportation|catastrophic]] emergency" (civil [[state of emergency#Germany|state of emergency]]). More than 1,000 rescue workers from regional emergency services, fire departments, rescue services, the police and army were dispatched. Some 37 [[emergency medicine|emergency physicians]], who happened to be attending a professional conference in nearby [[Hanover]], also provided assistance during the early hours of the rescue effort, as did units of the [[British Forces Germany]].

While the driver and many passengers in the front part of the train survived with minor to moderate injuries, very few passengers survived in the rear carriages, which crashed into the concrete bridge pile at a speed of {{convert|200|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}}. 101 were killed, including the two railway workers who had been standing under the bridge.

ICE 787, travelling from Hamburg to Hanover, had passed under the bridge going in the opposite direction only two minutes earlier. That train had passed the bridge one minute ahead of schedule, while the accident train was one minute behind schedule. Had both been on time, ICE 787 may have also been impacted by the derailment.

By 13:45 authorities had given emergency treatment to 87 people, of whom the 27 most severely injured were airlifted to hospitals.