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- In August a year ago, an SBB train attendant was trapped by a car door and dragged to death.
- The reason was a faulty anti-cheat protection device for a certain type of car.
- SBB then took steps to prevent such accidents.
- According to consumer magazine K-Tipp, there have been 36 more incidents with jammed train doors since then.
36 cases are registered in the accident database of the Federal Office of Transportation (FOT), all of which occurred after the fatal accident in August 2019. Those affected went to the doctor for bruises, scratches and the consequences of falls to the get caught in the train doors. That’s what consumer magazine K-Tipp investigated.
36 cases is a lot, admits Reto Schärli from SBB’s media office: “It’s a considerable number. In principle, every case in which a person is injured is too much. “But in many cases it is not possible to say exactly whether a technical defect was actually responsible for the incident.” We received 20 of these cases late and with inaccurate information and we could not investigate them in detail”.
No more injured than in previous years
But he trusts the customer and reports the cases to the database of the supervisory authority through the SBB, the BAV, Schärli relativizes. Michael Müller, press officer of the FOT, talks about 36 previous accidents, not accidents: “The number of accidents has remained practically the same in the last three years, there are no more injuries or more minor injuries than in previous years.”
The most serious case since the accident a year ago occurred last March: a man tried to open a door at the Bern train station that was about to close. The man’s hand was caught and the train started. The man had to run 45 meters to the side of the train, only then could he get his hand out of the door.
Rubber profiles too hard installed
SBB reported the case at the time. Schärli says that the anti-cheat protection did not work as specified. It turned out that rubber profiles that were too hard were installed on the doors. “This problem has been recognized, the softer rubber profiles will be rebuilt in the future, that should not happen again.”
There are problems with the doors on older single-deck type EW 4 wagons. Meanwhile, better anti-cheat protection has been installed on some of the doors. SBB has until 2023 to finish the work. A long period of time allowed by the regulator.
Michael Müller from FOT says: “That is too much for us too, we also reported this to SBB. But we can’t do anything else to say, do it as quickly as possible. We can’t do magic either. “
So stay in 2023. There’s never 100 percent accident protection, says SBB’s Schärli. He advises never to stop train doors that are closed with your hands or feet. In such a case, it is probably best to wait for the next train.
