Dahlerau train disaster

Dahlerau train disaster
Accident site, showing the destroyed first coach of the passenger train.
Details
DateMay 27, 1971
LocationDahlerau, Radevormwald, Oberbergischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia
CountryWest Germany
LineWupper Valley Railway
OperatorDeutsche Bundesbahn
Incident typeCollision
CauseNot determined
Statistics
Trains2
Deaths46
Injured25

The Dahlerau train disaster was a railway accident that occurred on May 27, 1971, in Dahlerau, a small town in Radevormwald, West Germany, in which a freight train and a passenger train collided head-on. Forty-six people perished in the accident; forty-one were senior year pupils of the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule in Radevormwald. It was the deadliest accident in West Germany since its foundation in 1949, surpassed after German reunification by the Eschede train disaster in 1998.