U.S. Army, Germans investigate
fatal train-truck collision
By Rick Emert, Stars
and Stripes
Rick Emert / Stars and Stripes
German investigators look at the remains of a U.S. Army vehicle Friday after it collided
with a German passenger train near Vilseck, Germany, killing three people and injuring
more than 20 others. |
Some of the five German train passengers injured when their train
collided with a U.S. Army vehicle Friday near the town of Gressenwöhr, Germany, have
improved while others remain in serious condition Monday, said a Polizei spokesman.
The spokesman could not say how many remain in serious condition, but
said that the injured were being treated at different hospitals.
The soldier driving the truck, Sgt. Todd Shofner, of the 529th
Ordnance Company, died in the accident.
The train’s engineer and a train passenger also died when the
collision sparked a fire that engulfed the engine and one passenger car.
The only passenger in the Army vehicle, Pvt. Giselle A. Saavedra,
jumped from the vehicle before the collision. She fractured her ankle and underwent
surgery at a local undisclosed hospital.
She is listed in good condition, said Maj. Gregory Burke, spokesman
for the 3rd Corps Support Command in Wiesbaden.
Shofner may have told Saavedra to jump from the vehicle as the train
barreled toward them, according to Capt. Jeff Settle, 7th Army Training Command spokesman
from Grafenwöhr.
“Apparently, the driver told her to get out,” Settle said
Friday before the official investigation began. “She managed to get free of the
vehicle before the train struck.”
The accident occurred at a marked, gated train crossing about three
miles north of Rose Barracks in Vilseck.
A team of investigators from the Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker,
Ala., and German officials continue to investigate the accident.
Because the accident happened outside an Army installation, German
authorities are conducting most of the investigation, said Kathy Gibbs, a 100th Area
Support Group spokeswoman from Grafenwöhr.
The Army Safety Center team expects its portion of the investigation
to take about two weeks. The investigators would not comment on details of the
investigation until it is completed, according to Gibbs.
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