Event
- Event ID
- 1218
- Quality
- Description
An accident occurred between a tractor and an hydrogen and fuel cells train at an unguarded level crossing. The driver of the tractor, which had also a trailer, apparently failed to see the train. The train driver attempted to make an emergency stop but was unable to prevent the collision with the tractor.
The train derailed and the tractor was destroyed by the impact (its driver severely injured).
The train's 13 passengers were uninjured. The conductor suffered a shock.
The firefighters secured the vehicle involved in the accident and collected leaking operating fluids. The material damage caused by the accident is initially estimated at several tens of thousands of euros.
The train was lifted back onto the track. The single-track railway line will remain closed until further notice.
There was no damage to the hydrogen storage system onboard or to any other hydrogen system.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- No Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- n.a.
- Macro-region
- Europe
- Country
- Germany
- Date
- Component involved
- FCEV train
- Failure mode
- damage, no release
- Initiating cause
- impact, rollover, crash
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the collision between the train and the tractor.
The ROOT CAUSE was a human error, the tractor driver which oversaw the arrival of a train at an unguarded level crossing. An in-depth analysis considering the hazards implicit in the level crossing, aiming at identifying possible other causes, is not available.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 30/09/2025
Facility
- Application
- Non-road vehicles
- Sub-application
- FCEV train
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
train
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- countryside or desert
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
The train consisted of two wagons, a max speed of 140 km/h and a range autonomy from approximately 600 to 800 km.
Onboard hydrogen storage: total of 188 kg, 94 kg on each of the two wagons, in 24 pressurised canisters at 350 bar.
(from https://www.railvolution.net/news/fuel-cell-coradia-ilint-on-test#:~:text=Technical%20Evaluation,circuit%2C%20the%20pertinent%20equation%20being:)
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 1
- Post-event summary
The level of damage to the train is unknown. Judging fro mthe only photo provided, it seems that only minor front area damagaes occurred.
- Emergency action
A large quantity of fire departments responded to the scene, coming from several municipalities in the neighbourhood, summing up to 100 professionals deployed.
The firefighters secured the vehicle involved in the accident and collected leaking operating fluids. The material damage caused by the accident is initially estimated at several tens of thousands of euros.
The train was lifted back onto the track. The single-track railway line remained closed for a long period.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
This is an incident involving a fuel cell and hydrogen vehicle, which nevertheless did not affect the hydrogen systems, and must to be classified as 'conventional incident' .
In-depth data
- Release type
- no release
- Involved substances (% vol)
- n.a.
- Released amount (kg)
- 0
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Release pressure [MPa]
- 35
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
FCW online news:
https://fuelcellsworks.com/2025/09/17/fuel-cells/hydrogen-train-crash-i…
(accessed September 2025)t-online news:
https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/panorama/ungluecke/id_100918830/sta…
(accessed September 2025)