Germany has determined the cause of the fatal train derailment
A report by the Federal Office for the Investigation of Railway Accidents in Germany stated that a landslide caused by heavy rains was the reason a regional train derailed near Ridlingen. Three people were killed in the accident on July 27, 2025, and another 36 passengers were injured.
According to “European Truth,” citing Spiegel, a thunderstorm front passed over Upper Swabia before the disaster. About 28 liters of rain fell in the area of the accident within an hour. The soil, which was already saturated with water from previous rains, could not absorb the additional moisture.
As a result of the landslide, mud and earth ended up on and alongside the tracks. A regional train traveling from Sigmaringen to Ulm crashed into the landslide. Three minutes after departing from Riedlingen, several cars derailed. At the moment of impact, the train was traveling at a speed of about 150 km/h, and communication with it was lost. Nine minutes later, traffic on that section of track was halted.
The report notes that dispatchers were concerned about the weather prior to the accident but saw no reason to take action. The authors of the document do not place blame on the employees, as there were no instructions on how to proceed in the event of forecasted heavy rain. The report also addresses the conflict between safety and punctuality.
The prosecutor’s office is continuing its criminal investigation into the deaths and is awaiting a geological report. A 70-year-old female passenger, a 32-year-old locomotive engineer, and a 36-year-old railway trainee were killed in the accident. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously reported that five Ukrainian citizens were on the train and were subsequently hospitalized. The section of the railway was closed for several months, and the tracks were repaired along a stretch approximately 300 meters long.
