German Court Abandons Rail Crash Trial

The trial of three engineers charged with causing Germany's worst-ever rail accident was abandoned on Thursday by a German court after eight months.

In reaching their decision to drop the case, state prosecutors and defense attorneys at the court in Lüneberg concluded it would take too long to establish whether the accused had actually been guilty and that public interest in the trial had waned. However, the court did order the three, 67-year-old Joachim Thilo von Madeyski, Volker Fischer, 56, and Franz Murarwa, 55, to each pay €10,000 in damages.

Lawyers for the victims of the crash and their relatives say they will appeal against the decision in Germany's constitutional court.

Germany's worst train wreck

A total of 101 died and an additional 105 passengers were injured when the high-speed Intercity Express train they were traveling on derailed and knocked out a roadway overpass near the northwestern town of Eschede on June 3, 1998.

The train, which had been traveling between Hamburg and Hanover, was moving at 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour) when it collided with a bridge and derailed, crushing several carriages.

It is believed that a broken wheel on the front carriage of the train was the cause of the accident -- a theory the engineers have denied. Prosecutors in the trial argued that the three engineers -- one from wheel manufacturer ThyssenKrupp and two from Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway -- fitted the train with rubber buffered wheels that were not tough enough to withstand the speeds at which the train was traveling.

Deutsche Bahn, which has already paid in excess of €25 million ($28 million) to compensate victims of the crash and families of the deceased, said in statement that the Eschede crash was a "tragic accident," but that the "court's decision proves that the accusations made against the Deutsche Bahn employers were not tenable."

Need for closure

Survivors and relatives of the victims protested Thursday's decision. Many left the courtroom in tears as the decision to throw out the trial was announced.

"I feel betrayed and abandoned," spokesperson for the victims of the crash, Heinrich Loewen said.

Gisela Angermann, who lost her son in the crash, said abandoning the trial meant those who had lost loved ones would never be able to move on.

"These things must be taken through to a clear ending," she said. " The people who have been left behind and the people who were injured in the crash need to have some kind of bearable conclusion to this. And this decision is not closure."

Rainer Geulen, one of the victims' lawyers said the decision to abandon the trial had come too early.

"Only the experts have been heard up till now. Defense questioning was not due to start until June; we have had no chance to put any questions to the experts. That right has been totally taken away now," Geulen said.

Geulen also said that the defense did not accept the way the decision to throw out the case had been reached, saying the victims had been completely cut out of the process.

New U.S. civil action possible

As many as 80 of the victims may now join a civil lawsuit in the United States against Deutsche Bahn. A New York court will decide in the next few months whether it will accept the charges filed by an American woman who was severely injured in the crash.