Damaged sleepers caused fatal train crash in Bavaria, report finds

An investigation into a deadly 2022 train crash in the German Alps has found that damaged concrete sleepers on the tracks were the main cause, according to an interim report, said dpa.

Four women and a teenaged boy died and 78 were injured, including 16 seriously, when a regional train bound for Munich derailed in the mountain resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on June 3, 2022. Among the dead were two mothers from Ukraine who had fled the Russian invasion with their children.

Accident investigators found signs of damage on the concrete sleepers laid under the tracks at the scene of the accident and indications that the rails broke free, according to the report published on Thursday by Germany's Federal Authority for Railway Accident Investigation (BEU).

"That is what has been determined so far," said a BEU spokesman on Thursday. "The investigations into the causes of the accident are much more extensive and ongoing."

The BEU made clear in the report that the investigation is not considering questions of criminal or legal liability.

Prosecutors in Munich investigated four employees of German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn on suspicion of negligent homicide in connection with the crash.

Deutsche Bahn on Wednesday announced that it would replace around 480,000 concrete sleepers. The rail operator has spent months checking sleepers made from a particular rock mixture.