Following the violent death of a train conductor during a ticket inspection in Rhineland-Palatinate, unions are unions are calling for action. “We need double staffing, we need a body camera that also records audio,” said Ralf Damde, chair of the central works council of DB Regio Rail and Bus, in an interview with radio station WDR5 on Thursday. He said new security concepts and closer cooperation with the federal police were necessary.
Damde also criticized rail operators. In past tender processes, “the cheaper, the better” had been the prevailing principle, he said. As a result, it had been accepted that trains were no longer accompanied by sufficient staff. One of the “hotspots for assaults” was North Rhine-Westphalia, Damde added.
Martin Burkert, head of the Railway and Transport Union EVG, likewise called for double staffing on trains. “Then this might have been preventable,” he told radio station Bayern2 on Thursday. “We have been pointing this out for years,” he added. 82% of railway employees had experienced verbal or physical assault. “Those are shocking numbers.”
He said equipment could also be improved, including body cameras with audio or an emergency call button on a wrist device. “These things always come with costs. But safety is not negotiable,” Burkert said. Railway staff are now trained to respond to aggressive passengers, he explained. “But for us, what is important is that no train attendant is alone on the train.”
On Wednesday evening, the Zweibrücken public prosecutor's office published further findings from the investigation. According to these findings, the 36-year-old died of a brain hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma to the head. The suspect had wanted to check the 36-year-old's ticket on Monday afternoon on a regional train bound for Homburg shortly after leaving Landstuhl station, the authorities in the Rhineland-Palatinate town said.
Because the 26-year-old was unable to produce a ticket, the 36-year-old asked him to leave the train. The 26-year-old then allegedly attacked the train conductor with several violent blows to the head. This caused him to lose consciousness. He was resuscitated by emergency services and taken to a hospital with serious injuries. He ultimately succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday. The public prosecutor's office is investigating on suspicion of manslaughter. The suspect is in custody.
The accused has not yet commented on the matter, according to the public prosecutor's office. “The background to the crime and the accused's motives are the subject of the investigation.” He is a Greek citizen and lives in Luxembourg. He has no previous convictions in Germany, nor is there any police information about him in this country.
According to the Bild newspaper, the train conductor's father suffered a heart attack after learning of the crime. He was able to leave the hospital two days later. “I had a bypass. But my son will not be coming back,” the father of the slain train conductor told Bild.
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