This CCTV image released on the Twitter account of the Washington State Department of Transport (@wsdot_tacoma) shows a high speed train after it derailled from an overpass on Interstate I-5 highway on December 18, 2017 in Pierce County, Washington state. An Amtrak passenger train derailed early Monday in Washington state near the city of Tacoma, with one car dropping down onto a busy interstate highway, officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Photographs posted online by people at the scene showed a long passenger car dangling down onto the highway from an overpass, and other cars also off the rails. Amtrak said it was “aware of an incident” involving Train 501, but did not immediately provide further details. / AFP PHOTO / WSDOT / – / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / Washington State Department of Transport ” – NO MARKETING – NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [No nam : -] instead of [Eric BARADAT]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require.
One of Germany’s top courts has ruled that heavily polluting vehicles can be banned from the urban centres of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf.
This is a landmark ruling which could cause traffic chaos and dramatically hit the value of diesel cars on the country’s roads.
Environmental campaigners had sued dozens of German cities, arguing that they have a duty to cut excessive air pollution to protect people’s health.
Diesel cars emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx, that causes respiratory illnesses and thousands of premature deaths annually.
Some 70 German cities including Munich, Stuttgart and Cologne recorded average nitrogen dioxide levels above EU thresholds in 2017, according to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA).
The federal government and Germany’s powerful auto industry lobby have always opposed any new restrictions for diesel cars.
Instead, ministers led by Chancellor Angela Merkel have offered a billion-euro fund, partly paid for by industry, to improve public transport or upgrade fleets to electric buses.
Meanwhile, car makers like Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler have struck a cooperative tone in the wake of VW’s “dieselgate” scandal, which saw it manipulate 11” million vehicles worldwide to fool regulators’ emissions tests.
The firms have so far offered only updates to engine control software to reduce emissions, but a court decision in favour of diesel bans could up the pressure on them to provide hardware fixes to more-polluting cars.
A refit to the more than nine million cars built before September 2015, when the latest Euro 6 emissions standards came into force, would cost at least 7.6 billion euros, a study by analysts at Evercore bank found last week.
Car companies have already seen the market share for diesel vehicles in Germany plunge from 48 per cent in 2015 to around 39 per cent last year.
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