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Fatal accident at a level crossing: How safe are Bremen routes?
On August 28, 2025, a fatal accident occurred in Bremen-Burglesum in which a passenger train collided with a car.
Fatal accident at a level crossing: How safe are Bremen routes?
On Tuesday morning, August 28, 2025, a tragic incident occurred in the Burglesum district of Bremen. A passenger train collided with a car, with the 19-year-old driver dying at the scene of the accident. The force of the impact dragged the car several hundred meters. Luckily, around 150 passengers on the train were uninjured. Several witnesses were immediately looked after by emergency medical personnel while the police are investigating the accident, the exact course of which is currently unclear. NDR reports this process and current developments.
The level crossing where the accident occurred is equipped with a demand-controlled barrier. Those responsible are now checking whether the barrier was open at the time of the event - a crucial question in the ongoing investigation. As a result, the railway line between Bremen-Burg and Bremen-Oslebshausen was closed for several hours. However, since the following Thursday, train traffic between Bremen and Bremerhaven has been running regularly again, including the regional express trains on lines RE8 and RE9 from Hanover and Osnabrück. A previously established rail replacement service with buses has now been discontinued.
Risk of accidents at railway crossings
The tragic incident also raises questions about safety standards at level crossings. A study by insurers' accident research (UDV) shows that accidents are often not caused by technical defects, but by the behavior of the drivers. 84% of drivers run the red light at crossings that have no gates but are secured with flashing lights. At crossings with half-barriers, 42% of road users try to go around them, which significantly increases the risk. Every year around 50 people die at railway crossings in Germany. The UDV therefore recommends a series of measures to avoid accidents, such as expanding full barriers and informing drivers about the dangers.
The analysis of the risk of accidents at level crossings is an important topic that is also covered in the research report by the German Statutory Accident Insurance. This discusses various measures to improve security. The report notes that a number of potential improvements can be made to reduce the frequency of accidents at level crossings in the railway transport system. This shows that structural measures can significantly influence the number of accidents and that human error is often the main reason for such tragedies.
Given these factors, it remains to be seen what findings the investigation into the Bremen accident will provide and what changes may be necessary to avoid such horrific incidents in the future. A lot depends on the responsibility of the drivers, but also on the safety precautions at level crossings.