A few sentences by the BERGBÄREN after suspension railway accident

On April 12th, 1999 at 5h47 in Wuppertal the unbelievable and pure incomprehensible happened: The Wuppertal suspension railway fell down. For the first (and we hope for the only) time in its 98-year-old history there was an accident with casualties. Five dead persons and 47 injured. That's the sad balance of this case which all would love to cut out.

The BERGBÄREN as a Wuppertal group have the opinion that we feel called upon to create an obituary. Because even one of us or persons who are close to him could have been concerned. And - not at least the Wuppertal suspension railway, although a bit changed, became the BERGBÄREN logo...

We offer our condolences to the relatives of the victims. We keep our fingers crossed for the injured.

Finally we want to state: The Wuppertal suspension railway despite this desaster stays the most safe mean of transportation world wide. Besides the cause isn't e. g. a technical defect but human carelessness!!!
The accident could have been prevented if the for the extension of the suspension railway responsible builders and contractors hadn't forgotten their metal claw and the WSW would have pay attention to the slogan "It's good to trust, it's better to control."!

Wuppertal, May 20th, 1999