The Eschede train disaster was the worst train accident in German history. It happened on 3 June 1998, near the village of Eschede in the district of Celle, Lower Saxony.

The ICE high-speed train "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen" was on the route from Munich to Hamburg. After stopping in Hanover at 10:30 am, the train continued its journey northwards. At 10:59 the train derailed. The cause of the disaster was a broken wheel. When passing a switch at over 200 km/h, the damaged wheel jumped off the rail. The locomotive was separated from the remaining train and the emergency brakes were activated; this braking had little effect as the braking distance was too long due to the velocity. The first four carriages made it through the road bridge that crossed the tracks at Eschede, but the fifth carriage drove against the pier. The bridge collapsed and buried two carriages, the rear carriages crashed into the wreckage and were totally torn apart.

While many passengers and the driver survived in the front part of the train, there was almost no chance of survival in the rear carriages. 101 people died in the disaster.

Ultimate cause

The ultimate cause of the accident was a faulty wheel design which eventually cracked. The wheel design had been modified to include a rubber layer between hub and rim, in order to supress noise and vibration. But the rubber layer allowed the rim to flex until it broke. The rubber wheel design has since been replaced.

In addition, valuable time was lost when a passenger tried to warn the train crew about a large piece of metal coming up through the floor. The Train Manager refused to to stop the train until he had investigated the problem himself, saying this was company policy. Most normal railways have a stop and inspect policy when there are strange noises or behaviour of the train.