# List of German rail accidents

This list of German rail accidents contains those train wrecks which happened in Germany, including
* German states before 1871 (excluding Austria)
* German Reich
* Allied-occupied Germany
* Federal Republic of Germany
* German Democratic Republic

## List

| Accident | Location | Date | Killed | Injured | Description |
| Gütersloh-Avenwedde rail accident [de] | | 21 January 1851 | 3 | 7 | Derailment of a Long Boiler locomotive which caused passenger coaches to derail. One of the injured passengers was Prince Frederick of Prussia, later German Emperor. |
| Hugstetten rail disaster | Hugstetten | 3 September 1882 | 64 | 230 | Track failure (after a strong thunderstorm) derailed the train. Improper track maintenance and overspeed are also mentioned. |
| Steglitz rail accident [de] | | 2 September 1883 | 39 | 8+? | A large crowd, out of control, crossed the main line to reach a departing local train. An express approaching on the main line ran into the crowd. |
| 1884 Hanau rail accident [de] | | 14 November 1884 | 22 | 26 | After a rear-end collision of a passenger train into a freight train, the derailed vehicles also blocked the second track for trains moving in the opposite direction. An oncoming train on the second track hit the remains of the first accident. |
| Würzburg rail accident [de] | | 1 July 1886 | 16 | 70 | The misunderstanding of two traffic controllers brings two trains onto the same track, resulting in a head-on collision. |
| Pelm rail accident [de] | | 18 May 1897 | 10 | 40 | After the division of a running train, the rear part collided with the front part later on. |
| 1900 Mühlheim am Main rail accident [de] | | 8 November 1900 | 12 | 4 | Rear-end collision under heavy fog; gas used for car-lighting caused a fire. |
| 1901 Ludwigshafen rail accident [de] | | 9 May 1901 | 1 | 2 | Spectacular overrun of a buffer stop due to defective brakes |
| Frankfurt Central Station rail accident [de] | | 6 December 1901 | 0 | 0 | Failing brakes caused the engine of the Eastend-Vienna-Express to overrun the buffer stop at Frankfurt Central station and smash a hole into the opposite wall, coming to a stop only in the waiting room of the station. Nobody was seriously hurt. |
| Altenbeken rail accident [de] | | 20 December 1901 | 12 | 27 | Rear-end collision after signalling a “go ahead” to the following train too early. |
| Zschortau rail accident [de] | | 5 May 1902 | 2 | 7 | Derailment after the breaking of an axle of the tender. |
| Rothenkirchen rail accident [de] | | 7 August 1903 | 3 | 30 | Excessive speed threw a train out of a narrow curve. |
| Herbolzheim rail accident [de] | | 2 December 1903 | 1 | ? | Shunting engine in the way of an express which hit it |
| Primkenau Forest fire [de] | | 15 August 1904 | 1 | ? | Sparks of a steam engine ignited a forest, burning down 46 square kilometers of it. |
| Schwegenheim rail accident [de] | | 25 May 1905 | 1 | 1 | A construction train derailed after heavy braking. |
| Spremberg rail accident [de] | | 7 August 1905 | 19 | 40 | A drunken train controller let two trains on the same track, causing a head-on collision. |
| Rabishau rail accident | Rabishau | 31 October 1906 | 0 | 2 | Two cargo trains collided at Rabishau on the Silesian Mountain Railway. |
| Züllichau level crossing accident [de] | | 28 October 1909 | 4 | 0 | First documented level crossing crash between a train and a motor car. |
| Müllheim rail accident [de] | | 17 July 1911 | 11 | 32 | Drunken engineer falls asleep, passes a speed limit with excessive speed, which causes the train to derail into a construction site. |
| Waldenburg rail accident [de] | | 22 October 1913 | 14 | ? | A runaway freight car collided with a tram on a level crossing. |
| Braunsdorf rail accident [de] | | 14 December 1913 | 10 | 53 | After a landslide the exit of a tunnel was blocked. A passenger train passing through the tunnel rammed itself into the rocks. |
| Nannhofen rail accident [de] | | 17 April 1917 | 30 | 80 | Express overran a stop signal and crashed into the side of a shunting mixed train. At the time, the railroad was using a white light to show permission to travel (although all other German railroads had switched to green in 1913); the driver probably confused the windows of the mixed train with the signal light. |
| Schönhausen rail accident [de] | | 16 October 1917 | 26 | 16 | Passenger train passed a red signal and rear-ended a freight train. |
| Dresden-Neustadt rail accident [de] | | 22 September 1918 | 18 | 118 | An overrun red signal led to a rear-end crash of two express trains. |
| Briesen rail accident [de] | | 1 November 1918 | 19 | 45 | Several cars at the rear of a freight train came loose after a coupling failed. A following passenger train rear-ended the cars that had been left behind. |
| Kranowitz rail accident [de] | | 24 October 1919 | 25+ | 80+ | The locomotive of a freight train pulled in too far on an adjacent track, fouling the entrance line. An incoming passenger train from Czechoslovakia sideswiped the locomotive. A fire began in the baggage car and this spread to a barrel of smuggled high-proof alcohol which exploded, spreading the fire to the passenger cars. |
| Silberhausen rail accident [de] | | 16 December 1920 | 17 | 9 | A mixed train lost control on a steep incline, overran a buffer stop and tumbled 20 meters down a slope. The heavy freight-cars loaded with minerals buried the two passenger coaches. |
| Berlin Schönhauser Allee rail accident [de] | | 27 June 1922 | 45 | 50? | During a memorial service for Walther Rathenau, most railway service was halted early and trains that were still running on the Ringbahn were overcrowded. As a result, passengers rode standing on the footboard of the coaches. A passenger was carrying long objects (probably wooden poles) and these struck numerous passengers on an oncoming train, knocking them off onto the tracks. |
| Kreiensen rail accident [de] | | 31 July 1923 | 48 | 39 | An express overrunning a red signal crashed into another express which stood in the station due to a defective locomotive. Gerhard Domagk, winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939, travelled in one of the totally destroyed coaches and escaped just by chance: he had left the train to get something to drink in the station. |
| Cannstatt rail accident [de] | | 15 November 1923 | 12 | 15 | Engineer misreading a signal collided head-on with an approaching train. |
| Ludwigsstadt rail accident [de] | | 18 February 1924 | 2 | 0 | After malfunction of the brakes, a freight train ran with excessive speed over a point securing a building site. The locomotive and 21 of the cars tumbled from the Trogenbach Viadukt, a bridge 26 meters high partly on top of buildings situated at the foot of the bridge. A part of the train was consumed in the following fire. |
| Mainz rail accident [de] | | 24 October 1924 | 14 | ? | Due to interference of the French military with the automatic train protection and a “go ahead” given too early, a passenger train rear-ended another train within a tunnel situated south of Mainz Central Station. |
| Herne rail accident [de] | | 13 January 1925 | 24 | 91 | Due to hastily installed train protection, a rear-end collision of two trains happened. |
| Rabishau, Schlesien rail accident | Rębiszów | 9 August 1925 | 3 | 2 | Two cargo trains collided in dense fog near the Rabishau station on the Silesian Mountain Railway. An electric locomotive and 59 cargo cars were damaged. Twelve rail cars were destroyed. |
| Langenbach rail accident [de] | | 13 August 1926 | 12 | 20 | Badly secured building site led to the derailment of a train. |
| Leiferde railway attack [de] | | 19 August 1926 | 21 | 40 | Two criminals intending to rob a mail-coach damaged the track. Express D 8 from Berlin to Cologne derailed. |
| Siegelsdorf rail accident [de] | | 10 June 1928 | 24 | 128 | Derailment caused by added multiple causes |
| Donnersberger Bridge rail accident [de] | | 15 July 1928 | 10 | 25 | Due to a misunderstanding between traffic controllers, two passenger trains had a rear-end collision when leaving München Hauptbahnhof. A third train could just stop before running into the debris. Still lighted by petroleum, the mainly wooden cars caught fire. |
| Dinkelscherben rail accident [de] | | 31 July 1928 | 23 | 51 | Passenger train ran into a freight train. The accident was caused by defective train protection due to work in progress. |
| Buir rail accident [de] | | 25 August 1929 | 14 | 103 | An express negotiated a low speed turnout at 100 km/h instead of 40 km/h and derailed. |
| Rail accident of Großheringen | Großheringen | 24 December 1935 | 34 | 27 | Express overran a red signal and crashed into the side of another passenger train. |
| Rail accident of Holzheim | | 15 September 1937 | 17 | 35 | On a building site, the “slow down” signal was not installed. So a train passed on too high a speed and derailed. |
| Rail accident of Bauerwitz | | 12 November 1939 | 43 | 77 | By a mistake of a traffic controller, two trains entered the same section of a single-track line and collided head-on. |
| Genthin rail disaster | Genthin | 22 December 1939 | 186 | 106 | Rear-end collision of two express trains after overrunning a red signal |
| Rail accident of Markdorf | | 22 December 1939 | 101 | 47 | Mistake of a traffic controller led to a head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train. |
| Rail accident of Gifhorn | Gifhorn | 22 January 1941 | 122 | 80 | Rear-end collision of a freight train overrunning a red signal and running into a train which transported about 1,000 prisoners of war. |
| Rail accident of Leichholz | Leichholz | 27 December 1941 | 44 | 67 | After the division of a freight train transporting petrol, a following express collided with those cars of the freight train which were disconnected. The collision caused an explosion of the petrol. |
| Halbstadt rail accident | Meziměstí | 8 June 1943 | 3 | 0 | Head-on collision with a steam engine and derailment of a cargo train at Halbstadt on the Silesian Mountain Railway. In the aftermath, the E91-96 electric locomotive had to be written off. |
| Porta Westfalica rail accident [de] | | 20 January 1944 | 79 | 64+ | Rear-end collision after signalling a “go ahead” to the following train too early. |
| Lichtenau rail accident | Zaręba | 24 October 1944 | ? | ? | During the Lichtenau train accident on the Silesian Mountain Railway, the D 192 Breslau – Berlin collided head-on with an electric suburban train at Lichtenau Station. The electric locomotive of the D 192, E18-15 (from Bw Hirschberg), suffered total damage in the accident and was scrapped on site. Cause of the collision was never determined. |
| Bad Zwischenahn rail accident [de] | | 19./20. November 1944 | 29 | | A train that was transporting, among other things, Dutch prisoners from the Rotterdam raid to Germany ran into another train at considerable speed. |
| Verne rail accident [de] | | 31 March 1945 | 7+ | ? | Rear-end collision of two trains not using any train protection which was not working due to destruction by war activities in the last days of World War II. |
| Berg am Laim rail accident [de] | | 8 May 1945 | 11 | ? | Explosion of ammunition train |
| Aßling rail accident [de] | | 16 July 1945 | 102+ | ? | Due to faulty signaling and a poor decision by a traffic controller, a freight train rear-ended a passenger train which had stopped after a technical default. |
| Neddemin rail accident [de] | | 4 December 1945 | 38 | 68 | Head-on collision of two passenger trains due to a dismantled train protection system and a mistake by the train controller. |
| 1946 Eisleben rail accident [de] | | 16 April 1946 | 24 | 39 | Train running on orders of Soviet occupying forces under the Soviet Military Administration in Germany but outside the rules securing movements of trains. This caused a rear-end collision of the train into a passenger train. |
| Neuwied rail accident [de] | | 22 December 1947 | 42 | 116 | Defective signalling due to shortages in the post-war era caused a head-on collision of two express trains. |
| BASF tank car explosion [de] | | 28 July 1948 | 207 | 3818 | A tank car, loaded with Dimethyl ether and parked within the industrial complex of BASF, leaked and exploded, releasing other chemicals. Most of the injured suffered from poisonous gases. |
| 1948 Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel rail accident [de] | | 22 November 1948 | 0 | 2 | After a coal dust explosion and fire on the steam engine of the express from Paris to Koblenz within Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel, then the longest railway tunnel of Germany, the engineer managed to run the train out of the tunnel with the burning engine – not a single passenger was injured. Tunnel operating regulations were changed: pilot locomotives required a special permit, trains were to have a second locomotive as a pusher to prevent exhaust fumes from entering the drivers cab, carbide and petroleum lamps in the tunnel were banned, coal dust had to be swept out of driver cabs before entering the tunnel and the entire surface of coal in the tender had to be wetted. |
| Meiningen boiler explosion [de] | | 4 May 1951 | 11 | 11 | During repairs on a steam engine in Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works, the boiler was not supervised properly and exploded. |
| Kenn level crossing accident [de] | | 10 June 1951 | 15 | 33 | A train on the Moselbahn struck a bus at a confusing, unguarded crossing. |
| Herrsching level crossing accident [de] | | 19 June 1951 | 16 | 7 | Passenger train 3461 struck a truck carrying 22 Jesuits on a pilgrimage to Andechs Monastery. The crossing had a self-operating barrier and it had not been closed after the last person used it. After the accident, the crossing was closed and removed. |
| Walpertskirchen rail accident [de] | | 8 November 1951 | 16 | 41 | The station master of this little station, all on his own and occupied by multiple tasks, erroneously let two trains, coming from opposite directions, into his station on the same track. This resulted in a head-on collision. |
| 1954 Hanau rail accident [de] | | 27 April 1954 | 4 | 97 | A regional train passed a red signal and hit into the side of the passing Scandinavia Express. The driver claimed that he saw a green signal; all signals would have anti-glare protection installed to prevent such an event. |
| Abenheim level crossing accident [de] | | 24 July 1954 | 25 | ? | Level crossing accident |
| Bornitz rail accident [de] | | 25 February 1956 | 43 | 55 | Shunting freight train crashed into the side of a passing express. |
| Drachenfels rail accident [de] | | 14 September 1958 | 18 | 112 | Faulty braking of a descending train on the Drachenfels Railway, a rack railway, resulted in excessive speed and derailment. |
| Lauffen bus crash | Lauffen am Neckar | 20 June 1959 | 45 | 25 | After the barrier of a level crossing was not closed properly, a train hit a bus. |
| Leipzig rail accident [de] | | 15 May 1960 | 54 | 240 | To get a train over a blocked signal, workers at a signal box handed a written order to the engineer of the train, but forgot to put the points right. This led the train onto a wrong track on which another train was approaching, resulting in a head-on collision. |
| Esslingen rail accident [de] | | 13 June 1961 | 35 | 36 | Head-on collision of two trains after one of the drivers ignored a red signal. |
| Berliner Tor S-Bahn accident [de] | | 5 October 1961 | 28 | 55 | A train controller erroneously guided a suburban train onto a track blocked by a maintenance train, which led to a collision. |
| Trebbin rail accident [de] | | 1 March 1962 | 70? | ? | The tank turret of a Soviet army tank transported on a train came loose, and its gun smashed into an oncoming express passing on the parallel track. |
| Langhagen rail accident [de] | | 1 November 1964 | 44 | 70 | After the derailment of a freight train, a passing express ran into the debris of the first accident. |
| Lampertheim rail accident [de] | | 12 August 1965 | 4 | 45 | A freight train was pulled out of the main line to be overtaken by a following Trans Europ Express. But the last car of the freight train did not clear the loading gauge completely. The Express hit the car, and its locomotive and all the cars derailed and were badly damaged. |
| Langenweddingen level crossing disaster | Magdeburg | 6 July 1967 | 94+ | ? | Level crossing accident: A passenger train hits a truck with a load of petrol which exploded. The train burned out. |
| Linden rail accident [de] | | 22 June 1969 | 12 | 30 | Explosion of a freight car loaded with ammunition. |
| Aitrang rail accident [de] | | 9 February 1971 | 28 | 42 | A Trans Europ Express derailed in a curve due to excessive speed. A railbus, approaching from the opposite direction, crashed into the wreckage. |
| Dahlerau train disaster | Dahlerau | 27 May 1971 | 46 | 25 | A freight train and a passenger train collided head-on after a misunderstanding between a traffic controller and an engineer. |
| Rheinweiler rail accident [de] | | 21 July 1971 | 25 | 121 | Engineer probably got incapacitated (he died in the accident) and the train derailed with excessive speed in a narrow curve. |
| Ingolstadt rail accident [de] | | 2 March 1972 | 3 | 0 | Rear-end crash of two freight trains, the front one loaded with oil, resulted in a blaze and large material damage. |
| Schweinsburg-Culten rail accident [de] | | 30 October 1972 | 28 | 70 | Train passing a red signal led to a head-on collision of two express trains. |
| Guntershausen rail accident [de] | | 5 November 1973 | 14 | 65 | Due to wet autumn weather the rails were covered with moisture, dirt and wet leaves. This caused such a bad braking performance that a train collided rear-end with another train standing. |
| Munich-Allach level crossing accident [de] | | 7 March 1975 | 12 | 5 | Level crossing accident |
| Warngau rail accident [de] | | 8 June 1975 | 41 | 122 | The misunderstanding of two traffic controllers and the nonexistence of technical train protection led to the head-on collision of two trains. |
| Hamburg-Hausbruch rail accident [de] | | 22 July 1975 | 11 | 125 | Local train ran a red signal, colliding head-on with a freight train. |
| Lebus train collision | Lebus | 27 June 1977 | 31 | 7 | Due to works re-signalling the station of Booßen, the point to the branch line to Frankfurt (Oder) was without any connection to the technical installations providing train protection and had to be handled manually. The person in charge of this erroneously switched it into the wrong direction, which led to the head-on collision of two trains. |
| Bitterfeld boiler explosion [de] | | 27 November 1977 | 9 | 45 | The boiler on locomotive 01 1516 exploded at Bitterfeld station due to lack of water while on its way to relieve express train D 567, whose locomotive had broken down. Last explosion of a steam engine boiler in Germany. |
| Erfurt-Bischleben rail accident [de] | | 11 June 1981 | 14 | 102 | Derailment of an express due to distortion of the track. |
| Heilbronn rail accident [de] | | 12 August 1984 | 3 | 57 | Excessive speed when crossing a point resulted in a derailment |
| Empelde rail accident [de] | | 20 March 1985 | 0 | 0 | Crash of two freight-trains. Explosion of several tank-cars loaded with petrol. |
| Forst Zinna rail disaster | Forst Zinna | 19 January 1988 | 6 | 33 | A Russian army tank ran onto a rail track and was hit by an express. |
| Heiligenberg Tunnel rail accident [de] | | 28 June 1988 | 1 | 38 | A freight train derailed after running into a landslide in the entrance of Heiligenberg Tunnel, its locomotive standing in the loading gauge of the track for trains running in opposite direction. An oncoming passenger train hit it and it too derailed. |
| Rüsselsheim train disaster | Rüsselsheim am Main | 2 February 1990 | 17 | 145 | An S-Bahn suburban service overran a red signal, leading to a head-on collision with an oncoming train. |
| Northeim rail accident [de] | | 15 November 1992 | 11 | 51 | A buffer fell from a freight train, causing 14 cars to derail, some of them standing within the loading gauge of the rail for trains coming from the opposite direction. The express from Copenhagen to Innsbruck ran into these cars. |
| Holthusen rail accident [de] | | 31 December 1992 | 1 | 9 | Due to a mistake by a traffic controller, a shunting engine came in the way of an approaching express train, followed by a collision. |
| Berlin-Wannsee rail accident [de] | | 9 April 1993 | 3 | 49 | Wrongly set points led to a head-on collision. |
| Bad Bramstedt rail accident [de] | | 29 September 1994 | 6 | 80 | A DMU entered a single-track line without permission and collided with an oncoming one. |
| Garmisch-Partenkirchen train collision | Garmisch-Partenkirchen | 12 December 1995 | 1 | 51 | A passenger train overran a stop-signal and crashed into DB 491 001-4 "Glass Train", an EMU for sightseeing purposes, very famous with railway enthusiasts. It was the last of two of these vehicles and damaged beyond repair in this accident. 491 001 has been under restoration since 2005, but due to economic reasons, it will never run again. |
| 1996 Schönebeck rail accident [de] | | 1 June 1996 | 0 | 18 | A train transporting vinyl chloride in 18 tank cars derailed on an outworn point. One of the cars topped another, hitting a 15000 volt overhead power line. This caused an explosion of the vinyl chloride in this car, and four more cars caught fire. It was one of the worst rail accidents in Germany involving hazardous goods. |
| Frankfurt (Main) Süd rail accidents [de] | | 19 February 1997 | 0 | 0 | Mix-up of two neighbouring signals by an engineer at the station of Frankfurt (Main) Süd which is placed in the inner city of Frankfurt. This caused the collision of two freight trains followed by the explosion of a car carrying petrol. A similar accident had happened in 1996 at this location, but without serious consequences. |
| Neustadt (Hessen) rail accident [de] | | 5 July 1997 | 6 | 14 | Loose steel pipes rolling off a passing freight train hit an oncoming passenger service. |
| Elsterwerda train disaster | Elsterwerda | 20 November 1997 | 2 | 8 | A freight train loaded with petrol derailed due to malfunctioning brakes, followed by a vast explosion causing widespread damage. |
| Hanover-Anderten rail accident [de] | | 9 December 1997 | 0 | 51 | A freight train overran a red signal and crashed head-on into an oncoming passenger train. Some of the derailed cargo cars loaded with diesel fuel ignited. |
| Eschede train disaster | Eschede | 3 June 1998 | 101 | 194 | An ICE high-speed train derailed after a fatigue crack in one wheel and crashed into a road bridge. It remains the worst rail disaster in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. |
| 1999 Wuppertal Schwebebahn accident | Wuppertal | 12 April 1999 | 5 | 47 | Workers forgot to remove a metal claw from the track on completion of scheduled night work. The first train of the day hit the claw, derailed and fell about 10 metres into the river Wupper. |
| Brühl train derailment | Bruhl | 6 February 2000 | 9 | 149 | A train negotiated a low speed turnout at three times the correct speed and derailed. |
| Katzenstein Tunnel rail accident [de] | | 10 June 2000 | 0 | 59 | A misunderstanding between two traffic controllers led to the head-on collision of two trains of the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway, a rack-railway, within a tunnel. |
| Vilseck level crossing accidents [de] | | 22 June 2001 | 4+3 | 16+19 | At a level crossing in Dillingen, a train crashed into a car and derailed. The 4 people in the car died and 16 people on the train suffered minor injuries. Hours earlier, 2 German troops and a U.S soldier were killed, and another soldier was seriously injured when a train coming from Weiden struck their army truck. 18 people on the train suffered minor injuries. |
| Bad Münder rail accident [de] | | 9 September 2002 | 0 | 2 | Head-on collision of two freight trains due to a disconnected braking pipe on one of the trains. 40000 litres of highly inflammable and carcinogen epichlorohydrin were released. |
| Schrozberg rail accident [de] | | 11 June 2003 | 6 | 25 | Mistakes of two traffic controllers, combined with faulty signaling equipment, caused a head-on collision of two passenger trains. |
| Lathen train collision | Lathen | 22 September 2006 | 23 | 10 | The Transrapid, an experimental maglev train, crashed into a maintenance vehicle. This was the first serious accident with a maglev train worldwide. |
| Landrücken Tunnel rail accident [de] | | 26 April 2008 | 0 | 37 | An Intercity-Express (ICE) hit a herd of sheep at 210 km/h in Landrücken Tunnel (longest tunnel of German Railways) and derailed. |
| Friedewald train collision | Friedewald | 12 September 2009 | 0 | 120 | Collision of two steam-hauled narrow-gauge museum trains. One had left a station without permission. |
| Peine-Horst derailment and collision | | 16 June 2010 | 0 | 20 | A wheel tire of the 10th car of a freight train (two engines and 49 freight cars) got loose, so this car and the following eight derailed, some obstructing the parallel track. A Regional Express passenger train (engine and five double-deck cars) from the opposite direction hit the freight cars after a short time. The RE's leading three vehicles derailed, and the first two fell on their sides. The freight train had been stopped earlier due to observation of sparks, but the reason was not found, so the train continued. The damage was estimated at €5,360,500. |
| Hordorf train collision | Oschersleben | 29 January 2011 | 10 | 100 | A freight train overran a red signal and collided head-on with a DMU. The freight train's driver failed to react on the distant and the main signal in foggy conditions, and there was no PZB safety system installed (on the infrastructure) that would have stopped the train in time. |
| 2012 Stuttgart derailments | Stuttgart | 24 July 2012 29 September 2012 10 October 2012 | 0 | 8 | Three InterCity trains derailed in Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, at the same place and for the same reasons. |
| Hosena rail accident [de] | | 26 July 2012 | 1 | 2 | Non-functioning brakes on a freight train loaded with gravel let it pass two signals at danger and subsequently to a side-on collision with another freight train. In the resulting crash, one of the signal boxes of Hosena station was completely destroyed. |
| Mannheim train collision | Mannheim | 1 August 2014 | 0 | 39 | Inside of Mannheim main station, a freight train passed a main signal at danger (red "halt" aspect) and was stopped by the PZB safety system. Instead of asking for permission to proceed, the driver restarted the train on his own, then passed two more signals (not guarded by PZB) at danger, so his train hit the side of a EuroCity long distance train. |
| Ibbenbüren train collision | Ibbenbüren | 16 May 2015 | 2 | 41 | A WestfalenBahn passenger train travelling from Osnabrück was in collision with a tractor and trailer that were obstructing a level crossing at Ibbenbüren |
| Bad Aibling rail accident | Bad Aibling | 9 February 2016 | 12 | 85 | Two regional trains hit each other head-on on the bend on the Mangfall Valley Railway. The traffic controller was distracted by a smartphone online game, violated safety procedures and ordered the driver of one of the trains to override safety mechanisms. |
| Munich Hackerbrücke rail accident | | 22 November 2019 | 0 | 1 | Two wagons have derailed shortly after leaving the Munich train station. Approximately 100 passengers were evacuated, one person was slightly injured. The cause of the derailment is still being investigated. |
| Ebenhausen-Schäftlarn rail accident [de] | | 14 February 2022 | 1 | 57 | On a single-track section of the Munich S-Bahn, a train departed from a station against a red signal and passed it at danger. Despite being tripped by the PZB, the driver restarted his train and subsequently collided head-on with an oncoming train. |
| Burgrain train derailment | Burgrain [de] | 3 June 2022 | 5 | 68 | Double-decker regional train derailed on a curved embankment, north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen station, near Burgrain [de]. |
| Ahrensfelde train fire | | 2 November 2024 | 0 | 0 | For an unknown reason, a diesel rail car starts burning in the Ahrensfelde train station in Berlin. However, no injuries have been reported. Officials have temporarily suspended rail traffic, and have not estimated, when it will resume. |
| Dorsfeld train collision | Dorsfeld [de] | 3 December 2024 | ? | ? | On the 3rd of December 2024, two trains collide 30km away from the station in Cologne, in Dorsfeld. The collision occurred on the rail line between Aachen and Cologne. |
| Hamburg train collision | Hamburg | 11 February 2025 | 1 | 25 | An ICE train rammed a truck on a crossing outside Hamburg, resulting in 25 injuries and the death of German historian and theologian Thomas Grossbölting. |