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        eLearning: Attention
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                BNSF coal train collision
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                Canadian National collision, Two Harbors MN Sept 2010.
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                Bad Aibling, GER Collision, February 2016
    

    
    
          **German dispatcher playing video game resulted in train collision. 12 passengers died. 85 were injured.**
A GER Collision.Photo Souce:
Getty Images, Photographer Peter KneffelOn February 9, 2016, two passenger trains collided on a single-track stretch of railway near Bad Aibling in Bavaria, about 60 kilometers (40mi) southeast of Munich. The crash occurred on a bend in a wooded area beside a canal that would have prevented the train
drivers from seeing the other before the accident. Both trains were traveling around 60 miles per hour when the crash occurred. Twelve passengers died and 85 were injured (23 seriously).

State authorities said that that the dispatcher in control of traffic on that line was playinga game on his phone and had most likely caused the crash. According to prosecutors he was playing the computer game on his mobile phone, made a signaling error, then called the wrong emergency number. Investigators said the timing of the computer game and the crash pointed to "the accused having been distracted from his management of rail traffic at the junction." The state prosecutor said "The latest investigation shows that, in violation of the railway work rules, the accused switched on his mobile phone during his shift on the morning of the accident, started an online computer game and played actively for an extended period of time until shortly before the collision."
              Sources
      
                              
                  
                  Berlinger, J., Halasz, S. & Hume T. (2016, April 16). German train dispatcher accused of playing game before deadly crash. Retrieved from CNN web site: http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/13/europe/german-train-crash/index.html
	Smale, A. (2016, April 13). Dispatcher playing with cell phone is faulted in German train crash. Retrieved from New York Times web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/world/europe/bavaria-germany-train-crash.html?_r=0
      
    
          Last updated: Wednesday, October 23, 2019 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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