One day after the S-Bahn accident in Schäftlarn, the locals are stuck in their bones. A visit to the village shows how deep the shock is.
Schäftlarn – The small community of Schäftlarn on day one after the S-Bahn accident*, which claimed one fatality and at least five seriously injured: It is a village in shock. There is not much going on in the shops around the Ebenhausen train station. It seems like there are more police and DB staff on the road than locals, and anyone who doesn’t wear a high-visibility vest is a journalist.
In front of the Gasthof zur Post, in the large car park where yesterday, in front of the illuminated shop windows of the hairdressing salon, passengers from the accident S-Bahn were wrapped in warm blankets by the fire brigade, there are now, 18 hours after the accident, four broadcasting vans. A little further in the butcher shop, which is also a bakery, a few coffee tables are already occupied.
The day after the Schäftlarn S-Bahn accident: the images stay in your head
Daniela Ruber, head of the butcher’s shop, is already preparing lunch for the rescue workers, 50 portions have been ordered. She was up until 1 a.m. the day before. Together with Theresa Kastenmüller, the junior boss of the bakery, she looked after the firefighters involved. It didn’t matter to her whether it was ever paid for or not, she says. “I just wanted to help these amazing people.”
On the other hand, those who were somewhere somewhere the evening before can no longer get the images they saw out of their heads. Elisabeth Jänchen, who lives above the railway line, says she made chairs available all evening and handed out blankets.
Schäftlarn in shock after the S-Bahn collision: “It takes you away”
Jänchen doesn’t have to go far to the railway station at the end of the cul-de-sac*, where the fire brigade and emergency doctor first treated many of the injured. “I’m still cold,” she says, having had heart palpitations half the night. Lia Schneider-Stöckl, author and cultural organizer, for whom the emergency vehicles flashed into the living room, says: “All of this takes you away, you worry.”
Schäftlarn’s Mayor Christian Fürst (CSU*) is sitting in the town hall the day after the accident and is just happy despite the shock. He was there by 10:30 p.m., and at some point they showed him the scene of the accident. Fürst saw that both trains had jumped off the tracks*. “How easily one of the trains could have slipped, you have to say, we also had a great guardian angel.” *Merkur.de/bayern is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
