Only a power cut stopped a fifty-year-old inebriated train driver from ignoring a signal in Austria.
According to media reports, on December 3, the train driver, who is originally from Lombardy in Northern Italy, was supposed to operate a freight train from Hall to Verona, Austria. The power in that area had to be turned off in order to stop the train after the 50-year-old repeatedly stopped for no apparent reason and then disregarded a supposed protective signal at 2:20 p.m.
The train driver then left the locomotive in the area of the shunting yard and walked onto the tracks. The train dispatcher initiated an emergency stop, the police were alerted, and they determined that the man was heavily intoxicated.
According to Christoph Gasser-Mair, a spokesman for Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), this is a “regrettable, absolute isolated incident.”
He said that the ÖBB train control center performed appropriately and that all technical systems were operating as planned. The train was put on an emergency brake, “but the train driver continued on his own initiative.” The only thing left to do in such a situation is to turn off the electricity.
