German rail crashes investigated

MUNICH, Germany -- German police sifting through the wreckage of two fatal train crashes have said warning signals appeared to be working.

Seven people died on Friday in two separate crashes involving vehicles attempting to cross tracks ahead of speeding trains.

"Based on our initial investigations, it appears the train driver was not at fault," a police spokesperson in the southern town of Amberg, where three people were killed when a train hit a U.S. army truck, told Reuters.

The dead were the truck driver, the train driver and a passenger on the train.

"The crossing gates were functioning properly," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Less than 12 hours later a family of four was killed when a local train slammed into their car near Dillingen, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Munich, and pushed the crumpled vehicle 200 metres down the track.

The train derailed and 16 passengers suffered slight injuries.

A police spokesman in Dillingen said state prosecutors were trying to determine why the car drove onto the tracks.

"The red lights were flashing, based on what eyewitnesses have told us," Reuters quoted the spokesman as saying.