Near-disaster in Germany Freight train driver falls asleep with a blood alcohol level of 1.41 - ICE has to stop

Before setting off with his freight train, a man got so drunk that he later fell asleep in his locomotive. An ICE train driver possibly prevented worse.

An ICE train made an unscheduled stop because of a drunk driver of a freight train. The driver of the express train discovered his colleague asleep on the floor of his train, which had stopped at Rethen station south of Hanover, according to the Federal Police. When the freight train driver then wanted to continue, the other man reportedly prevented this by manually operating the locomotive from the outside.

Early on Saturday morning, the driver of the ICE train had been asked by the control center to check because contact with the other driver had been lost. According to the federal police, it later transpired that the freight train driver had 1.41 per mille alcohol in his blood.

Driven about 100 kilometers after bar visit

According to his own statements, the 40-year-old was first in a bar in Göttingen before he drove the freight train around 100 kilometers almost to Hanover, as the federal police reported. He later told the alerted police officers that he no longer knew why he had taken over the train.

The freight train was therefore not loaded with hazardous goods and presumably stopped automatically when the driver fell asleep. It was initially unclear whether the man had been overcome by sleep or had deliberately gone to sleep. It was also initially unknown whether there were any passengers on the ICE.

The federal police confiscated the 40-year-old's train driver's license and took him to the police station. He is now being investigated for drunk driving and endangering rail traffic. Deutsche Bahn took care of parking the stranded train safely.