BAVARIA, Germany, Dec. 5 (UPI) — A German court on Monday sentenced a rail dispatcher to 3 1/2 years in prison for a train crash that killed 12 people and injured 89 others while he was distracted playing a game on his cellphone.
Three judges and two citizens in the Bavarian town of Traunstein found Michael Paul, 40, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and bodily harm. On Feb. 9, two commuter trains carrying 150 people crashed head-on while traveling 60 mph in Bad Aibling in one of Germany’s worst train accidents.
The dispatcher admitted to misconduct when the trial started last month. He sent the wrong train signals and dialed the wrong number in an emergency call to the train engineers to avert the head-on crash.
Prosecutors sought a four-year jail sentence and the defense requested 2 1/2 years. The maximum sentence under German law is five years.
“I know that I cannot undo what has happened, even if I wish I could,” he told family members of the victims earlier in the trial. “I would like to tell you that my thoughts are with you.”
Paul admitted playing Dungeon Hunter 5 on his phone shortly before the crash. German railway operator Deutsche Bahn bans the private use of smartphones while working.
Authorities investigating the disaster ruled out a technical defect as the cause of the crash, although the signal technology used was more than 30 years old.
The defendant wore a hood in court to hide his face because of privacy laws in Germany.
