C1/2006R Derailment of locomotive and two wagons at Luumäki, Finland, on March 20, 2006

On Monday March 20, 2006 at 21.41 hours two wagons and the rear bogie of a locomotive de-railed on a turnout in the east end of Luumäki railway yard. The incident entailed no personal in-jury. The derailed wagons damaged two point mechanisms of the operating switch crossing, and stretcher rods, and they caused rail fastening parts to detach.

The chain of events resulting in the derailment started from the heating fuse of the crossing with a movable frog having burnt, thus preventing an adequate heating of the crossing. When operated laterally, the crossing failed to take the detection position and the point failed to take the detection position. The incident was caused by the remote control operator and the engine driver being unable to act in an expedient manner in such en exceptional situation. Neither of them was very familiar with the turnouts with flat-angle crossings at Luumäki. The remote control operator granted the train the permission to pull via a secondary track to the turnout with a flat-angle cross-ing, though the turnout had been operated to take the position toward the straight track. Having trailed the crossing with a movable frog, the engine driver set out to push the wagons back.

In order to prevent such incidents in the future, the Accident Investigation Board of Finland reiter-ates its previously issued recommendation suggesting that the orientation training designed for dispatchers include detailed data on all stations within their respective responsibility so as to en-able them to secure the safety of traffic operation.

C1/2006R Report (pdf, 0.57 Mt)

•Recommendation S180