Victims of railway disasters. Train accidents in Russia

TASS DOSSIER. On August 11, 2017, in Egypt, near the city of Alexandria, a passenger train heading to Cairo full speed ahead crashed into a train that had stopped due to a breakdown, traveling along the route Port Said - Alexandria.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Health, 41 people were killed in the clash and another 132 were injured.

The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about major train accidents that occurred in various countries around the world.

January 3, 1944 near the city of Leon (Spain), about 500 people died during a collision between two trains in a tunnel.

August 6, 1952 at the Drovnino station on the Western Railway in the Mozhaisky district of the Moscow region, going to high speed the train collided with a horse, causing the train to derail. 109 people died.

October 8, 1952 two trains collided within London (Great Britain), and 30 minutes later a third train crashed into them. 112 people were killed and 340 people were injured.

June 6, 1981 near Patna in Bihar state (India) hurricane wind Seven carriages of a passenger train were overturned from the bridge into the Bagmati River. More than 800 people died.

August 7, 1987 V Rostov region(USSR), an electric locomotive of a freight train, accelerating downhill to 140 km/h, crashed into the rear cars of the Rostov-on-Don - Moscow passenger train. 106 people were killed, 114 were injured, and material damage amounted to over 1.5 million rubles. During the investigation, it turned out that the crash occurred due to a malfunction of the brake system on the freight train.

June 3, 1989 The largest train accident in the history of Russia and the USSR occurred near Ufa. As two passenger trains passed by, an explosion occurred on a nearby pipeline as a result of an accident. 575 people were killed and more than 600 were injured.

January 15, 1989 near Dhaka (Bangladesh), as a result of a collision between passenger trains, 135 people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.

January 3, 1990 Near the city of Sukkur (Pakistan), a collision between a passenger and freight train killed 307 people and injured 430.

1April 6, 1990 In the state of Bihar (India), about 100 people died due to a fire on a passenger train.

June 9, 1991 Over 100 people were killed and about 250 injured in a train accident in southern Pakistan.

September 6, 1991 Near the city of Pointe-Noire (Congo), more than 100 people were killed and dozens were injured as a result of a collision between a freight train and a passenger train.

September 22, 1994 In the province of Huila (Angola), 300 people were killed and 147 were injured as a result of the crash of a freight train carrying many people on the platforms.

August 21, 1995 In the state of Uttar Pradesh (India), about 350 people were killed and over 400 were injured in a collision between passenger trains.

March 3, 1997 In the province of Punjab (Pakistan), 128 people died in a train accident.

April 29, 1997 At Rongjiawan station in Hunan province (China), a collision between passenger trains killed 100 people and injured about 300.

June 3, 1998 in the federal state of Lower Saxony, near the city of Eschede (Germany), a car, having broken through a barrier, fell from a bridge onto the railway tracks. A train traveling at a speed of 200 km/h, carrying more than 700 passengers, derailed and crashed into a support of another bridge. As a result, the bridge collapsed and its debris fell onto the passenger cars. More than 100 people died.

November 26, 1998 In the state of Punjab (India), a train accident killed 108 people and injured 230.

August 2, 1999 At the Gaisal station in the state of West Bengal (India), 280 people were killed as a result of a collision between an express passenger train and a train standing at the platform.

February 20, 2002 As a result of a fire on the Cairo-Luxor (Egypt) passenger train, 373 people were killed and 74 people were injured and burned. The cause of the incident was short circuit in the electrical wiring of the train. This is the largest disaster in the history of railway transport in Egypt.

May 25, 2002 in Moamba (Mozambique), a train consisting of passenger and freight cars crashed. More than 200 people died, 400 received various injuries.

June 24, 2002 In Tanzania, a collision between a passenger train and a freight train killed 281 people and injured about 900. The cause of the disaster was a failure of the passenger train's brakes.

September 9, 2002 In the state of Bihar (India), a passenger express train derailed and fell from a bridge into a river. At least 150 people were killed and more than 200 people were injured.

February 18, 2004 Near the city of Nishapur (Iran), gasoline tanks exploded during a collision between freight trains. As a result of the fire, about 400 people died and 460 were injured.

April 22, 2004 At the Rencheon station (DPRK), a collision occurred between trains, one of which was transporting oil, the other - liquefied gas. The disaster resulted in a massive explosion that killed 170 people and injured about 1,300.

December 26, 2004 near the village of Peraliya (Sri Lanka) a train accident occurred in which about 2 thousand people died. The cause of the tragedy was an earthquake and tsunami. This disaster is considered the largest in the history of railway transport.

April 25, 2005 in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, o. Honshu (Japan) five of seven cars derailed high-speed trains. The first carriage of the train crashed into a 9-story residential building at high speed. 108 people were killed and more than 450 were injured.

1July 3, 2005 At Ghotki station in Sindh province (Pakistan), a train crashed into a train standing on the tracks. The derailed carriages blocked the adjacent track, where they were rammed by a passing express train. About 300 people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.

October 29, 2005 near the village of Valukodu in the state of Andhra Pradesh (India), a locomotive and seven carriages of a passenger train derailed and fell from a bridge. 200 people were killed and about 100 were injured. The disaster occurred in conditions of severe flooding.

August 1, 2007 In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 160 people were killed in a train accident in Kasai province in the central part of the country.

July 10, 2011 In India, 120 km from the city of Lucknow, the administrative center of the state of Uttar Pradesh, a passenger train crashed. The driver applied the emergency brake to avoid crashing into a herd of cows crossing the railroad tracks. As a result, 12 carriages and the train locomotive derailed. 80 people were killed and more than 350 were injured.

July 6, 2013 In Lac-Mégentique (Canada), a train of 72 tanks with oil, which was traveling from the United States to an oil refinery in Quebec, derailed. As a result of the disaster, a fire started in which 47 city residents died, 30 people who were previously considered missing were declared dead. 2 thousand residents of nearby areas of the city were evacuated. The fire destroyed over 40 buildings. Total amount damage exceeded $200 million.

July 24, 2013 in Santiago de Compostela ( administrative center Galicia, Spain) a train traveling from Madrid to Ferrol crashed. 80 people were killed, 178 people were injured of varying severity. The train driver took the blame, admitting that he was speeding on the turn.

April 22, 2014 to Katanga province Democratic Republic Congo, 15 carriages of a freight train carrying hundreds of illegal passengers were derailed. 48 people were killed and about 150 were injured. The cause of the crash was exceeding a safe speed due to an engine problem in one of the two locomotives.

March 20, 2015 In India, a locomotive and two carriages of a passenger train traveling on the Dehradun-Varanasi route derailed at Bahrawan station in Rai Bareli district (Uttar Pradesh). 58 people were killed and more than 150 people were injured. According to the Ministry of Railways of India, the accident occurred due to the fact that the train passed a prohibiting traffic signal.

August 4, 2015 When two passenger trains crashed on a bridge over the Machak River near Kharda (Madhya Pradesh, India), at least 32 people were killed, five were missing and over 40 people were injured. Constructions railway bridge were washed away as a result of the flood and could not withstand the weight of two trains traveling in opposite directions. The main cause of death was electric shock.

July 12, 2016 between settlements Corato and Andria in the vicinity of Bari (Apulia region, Italy) on a single-track railway line there was a head-on collision between two passenger trains. As a result, 23 people were killed and over 50 people were injured.

October 21, 2016 passenger train traveling from the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé, to largest city country, Douala, derailed 120 km west of the station departures. As a result, at least 79 people were killed and over 550 people were injured. to varying degrees gravity. A large number of victims and injured were caused by overcrowding of the train (the train, designed for 600 passengers, carried more than 1 thousand 300 people).

November 20, 2016 100 km south of Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, India), in the area of ​​the town of Pukhrayan, 14 carriages of a passenger train traveling along the Indore - Patna route derailed. As a result, 151 people died and about 200 more were injured. According to preliminary data, the cause of the disaster was damage to the rail.

November 25, 2016 near railway station Haft Khan (Iran) passenger train traveling from Tabriz to Mashhad stopped for an unknown reason, after which another passenger train crashed into it. As a result, five carriages derailed and two carriages caught fire. At least 36 people were killed and about 70 more people were injured.

January 21, 2017 In India, the Hirakhand express passenger train, traveling from Jagdalpur to Bhubaneswar, derailed near Kuneru station (Vizianagaram district, Andhra Pradesh). A diesel locomotive and nine carriages overturned. As a result of the disaster and the crush that occurred in the carriages, 41 people died and 68 were injured.

Rail transport is one of the most inexpensive, convenient and safe. That is why passengers often choose it. Nevertheless, disasters also occur on railways. When are the trains leaving? full speed collide or go downhill, it turns out that powerful destructive forces come into play.

The rumbling trains become uncontrollable, and man can no longer stop the catastrophe. Inside the carriages, a real hell unfolds, which makes a real mess out of human bodies. People discuss plane crashes, forgetting about the most major accidents on the railways. But these disasters also claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

Train fire in Egypt, 2002. This disaster happened to a passenger train that was traveling from Cairo to Luxor on February 20, 2002. A gas cylinder exploded in one of the carriages at 2 am; passengers used it to warm themselves. The driver did not notice that his train was on fire and continued driving at full speed. A total of seven carriages burned out, almost to the ground. Of these, six were in the cheap third class. Each of them was designed for 150 people, but in fact they carried twice as many passengers. The disaster reached such proportions due to the train being overloaded. The unfortunate people had to jump out of the burning cars at full speed, which also led to death and injury. According to official information, about 383 people were burned in the fire, and several hundred were seriously injured. However, it was never possible to find out the exact number of victims, since there was no full list passengers. The fire was so intense that many of the corpses turned to ash, making it impossible to identify them. Rumors speak of a thousand victims, which can no longer be proven. As a result of this incident, Egypt's Minister of Transport was forced to resign.

Awash disaster, 1985. This train accident is considered the worst in African history. It happened in Ethiopia on January 14, 1985 with a train traveling on the Addis Ababa-Djibouti route. Train on high speed drove onto a curved bridge. The driver was unable or forgot to slow down the train. As a result, four of the five express cars with a thousand passengers and seven cars collapsed into the ravine. At least 428 people were killed, and the number of wounded exceeded five hundred. Moreover, almost all the victims were in in serious condition. The nearest decent hospital was a hundred kilometers from the accident site. If earlier in Ethiopia local separatists attacked trains, then in in this case There was no talk of any sabotage initially. The driver was blamed and was immediately sent to trial.

Torre del Bierzo, 1944. On January 3, 1944, near the Spanish village of Torre del Bierzo, a mail train with failed brakes began to enter tunnel number 20. There was a shunting train with three cars, which did not have time to leave the track. Two carriages ended up inside the tunnel when a collision occurred with a courier train. The fire immediately consumed the wooden structures and destroyed the first six carriages of the mail train. On the other side, a steam locomotive with 27 loaded cars entered the tunnel. The driver of the shunting train signaled as best he could, but he was ignored. The alarm system was damaged due to the fire. The disaster turned into a major fire that could not be extinguished for two whole days. This made it impossible to launch a rescue operation. It was not possible to calculate the exact number of victims - the Franco regime officially announced 78 dead. However, there were many stowaways on the train, and the fire destroyed human remains. Today it is generally accepted that the number of victims was in the hundreds - the train was overcrowded, because many were going to the Christmas market. Already in the 40s they talked about 200-250 dead, but today it is believed that there could be 500-800.

Balvano, 1944. During World War II, disruptions in the supply of goods led to the flourishing of the black market. By 1944, speculators and small businessmen were hiding on freight trains to reach their suppliers' farms. But in those years, a situation arose on the railway with a shortage of high-quality coal. As a result, lower-order substitutes went into the furnace, which produced a huge volume carbon monoxide. It was extremely poisonous, but had no odor, which made it undetectable. On March 2, 1944, significantly overloaded train 8017, carrying cars, got stuck inside a steep tunnel. Its crew, passengers and several hundred passengers, including those illegally huddled outside, were exposed to those same carbon monoxide fumes. The only survivors were those who were traveling in the last carriages and did not have time to enter the tunnel. That accident officially claimed the lives of 426 people, but in reality there were one and a half times more victims.

Ufa, 1989. This train accident is considered the largest in the history of the USSR and Russia. It happened on June 4 on the Asha-Ulu-Telyak stretch. Nearby was the Western Siberia - Ural pipeline, through which a liquefied mixture of gas and gasoline was transmitted. A narrow gap formed in it, through which gas accumulated in the lowland. That's where it lay Trans-Siberian Railway. Shortly before the disaster, instruments showed a drop in pressure, but the duty officer decided not to look for a leak, but increased the gas supply even more. As a result, even more flammable hydrocarbons leaked through the crack, which could ignite from any spark. The drivers also knew about the heavy gas pollution on the site, but the railway workers did not pay attention to this. special significance. At 01:15 at night, two passenger trains met on the stretch - traveling from Novosibirsk to Adler and back. It is quite possible that as a result of braking, a spark was formed, which caused a volumetric explosion. Its strength was such that in the city of Asha, at a distance of 10 kilometers, the blast wave broke the windows. In total, there were 1,284 passengers on the trains, including 383 children. The shock wave threw 11 cars off the tracks, seven of them were completely burned. According to official data, 575 people died (unofficially - 645), almost all survivors became disabled and received severe burns. The rescue operation was difficult due to the inaccessibility of the area.

Bihar crash, 1981. The disaster occurred between the cities of Mansi and Saharsa. June marks the monsoon season in India. A hurricane wind rose and overturned seven carriages of a train that was crossing the bridge into the river. According to another version, the flood simply washed away the train. It contained from eight hundred to three thousand people. They also talk about a cow that appeared inopportunely on the way. The driver braked sharply, and the cars began to slide along the wet rails, falling off the bridge. Help was hours away, and most of the passengers drowned or were swept away by the raging river long before rescuers arrived. In the first five days, two hundred dead were found, and the fate of several hundred passengers remained unknown.

Guadalajara, 1915. That year the Mexican Revolution was in full swing. Despite the change of power, President Carranza continued to wage armed struggle against his opponents. On January 18, 1915, government forces captured the city of Guadalajara in the southwest of the country. The President ordered that the soldiers' families be transported there by rail from the city of Colima on the Pacific coast. On January 22, 1915, a special train with 20 overloaded cars set off. People even sat on the roofs and clung outside. Somewhere along the way, the driver lost control of the train on a long, steep descent. Many people flew out of the carriages at sharp turns. As a result, in a deep canyon the train finally derailed. Of the 900 passengers, less than a third survived. It is known that many Mexicans even committed suicide after learning about the death of all their loved ones. There were those who wanted to take revenge on the traveling crew, but they also all died during the disaster.

Disaster near Churya, 1917. The route between the Romanian Ciurea and Barlad is marked by a steep 15-kilometer gradient, which in some places is up to 6.7%. On January 13, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a train with 26 cars, driven by two locomotives, passed here. It transported wounded Russian soldiers and refugees hiding from the advancing Germans. And in this case, the train was crowded - people were riding on the roofs and even between the cars. Such an abundance of people led to the fact that they simply damaged the pipelines of the brake system. As a result, during the descent, the drivers discovered that they could not slow down. The braking power of the two locomotives was not enough. The drivers noticed that they were rushing straight towards another train standing at the platform. When trying to cross to another track at high speed, the train derailed. 24 cars went downhill. A fire broke out in a pile of twisted metal, killing between 600 and 1,000 passengers.

Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, 1917. This railway accident was the largest in French history. On December 12, in train No. 612, more than a thousand soldiers were returning home for Christmas. The train was made up of different carriages, mostly Italian. It turned out to be so long that it had to be carried by two locomotives. In addition, part of the route ran through a steep descent of 33%. But only one locomotive was found; the second was requisitioned to transport ammunition. And of all the cars, only three had air brakes; the rest had special brakers. The driver agreed to drive such an overloaded train only under the threat of a tribunal. At first it was possible to control the speed, but on the descent the train accelerated to 135 kilometers per hour. During one of the sharp turns, the coupling broke and the first car went off the rails. The others began to crash into him and the wooden structures burst into flames. The fire intensified due to the fact that many soldiers were carrying ammunition and grenades with them. Despite the help that quickly arrived here, there was no one to save. In total, about 700 people died in that disaster; many bodies could not be identified at all. People were buried in one mass grave. At first the disaster was hushed up, as military secret, but four days later the press reported to the whole world an unprecedented accident. Six railway workers were brought to trial, but they were acquitted.

Peraliya crash, 2004. This disaster was the largest in the history of railway transport. The culprit was not the human factor, as in most other cases, but the natural elements. The Queen of the Sea passenger train made regular trips to the southern part of the island. Obeying semaphore signals, the train stopped in an open area 170 meters from the sea. More than one and a half thousand passengers were traveling on the train. At that moment, a tsunami up to 9 meters high hit the island. Panic arose; local residents began to flock to the train, seeing it as a refuge from the water. The second 7-meter wave tore apart the train. Due to the crush, passengers were unable to escape from the carriages, which turned from a refuge into a death trap. 30-ton carriages were thrown hundreds of meters into the jungle, even an 80-ton diesel locomotive was carried away 50 meters. Those of the unfortunate passengers who were not crushed by the train simply drowned. Only 150 lucky ones survived. Due to the scale of the disaster caused by the tsunami quick help and there was no talk. And the main road to the accident site turned out to be a damaged railway track. The number of victims is believed to be between 1,700 and 2,000. It turned out to be impossible to identify most of them, and two cars were even carried away into the ocean.

Emergency situations on railways lead to casualties and serious destruction. Sometimes hundreds of people die due to an absurd accident. How does this happen? Let's try to figure it out.

Terrible train accidents in the USSR

Disaster near Ufa

The cause was a cloud that appeared after an accident on the nearby Siberia-Ural-Volga region pipeline. Five hundred and seventy-five people became victims of the explosion, and about the same number were injured.

Explosion in Arzamas

Disaster at Kamenskaya station

Worst railway accidents in the world

Versailles train accident (France)

Crash in Bihar (India)

Accident at Steblova station (Czechoslovakia)

Serious emergency situations on railways in modern Russia

Crash in Podsosenka

Nevsky Express crash

Clashes in the Chelyabinsk region near Asha

The worst train accident in history

According to various sources, the disaster claimed from one thousand seven hundred to two thousand human lives. This happened in December two thousand and four.

Modern trains are created in compliance with all safety standards and using high technology. It even turns out that trains move faster on the ground than airplanes. There is a website about the fastest trains.
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Rail transport has been around for two centuries and continues to improve. Trains and electric trains are becoming faster, more convenient, and more accessible. But security seems to remain at the same level. Every year across the globe, various railway accidents claim the lives of hundreds of people. Alexey Naryshkin recalled the most terrible disasters:

Does not always lead to serious accidents on railways technical fault or the notorious “human factor”. On December 26, 2004, the cause of the worst disaster in the history of this transport was natural disaster. That day, the Queen of the Sea Line passenger train, as always, departed from the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, to the southern province. The route was actively used by both local residents and tourists. For them, this flight was a real attraction - they could admire the views of the Indian Ocean and the beauty of nature.

Near the village of Peraliya, the train made a long forced stop in front of the semaphore. By that time, the authorities already knew about the strongest earthquake in the Indian Ocean, but it was not possible to contact the driver and prevent the tragedy - tsunami waves hit the train one after another. Their height reached 9 meters.

The most terrible disaster on railways - in 2004 in Sri Lanka

The train was washed off the tracks, it overturned and immediately filled with water. Multi-ton carriages were carried hundreds of meters from the coastline into the jungle. Few managed to escape the trap. About 200 passengers survived.

Rescuers were able to reach the heavily damaged area only on the third day. More than 1,700 people have been declared dead or missing. Relatives of the victims come every year to the memorial ceremony that takes place on the coast.

Most of the victims of this tragedy were free riders and speculators who tried to profit from the sale of scarce goods during the Second World War. world war. Steam locomotives then ran on low-quality coal. Their traction was low, the trains moved slowly, they generally drove uphill with with great difficulty. Jumping into the carriage while moving was not particularly difficult.

On March 2, 1944, near the village of Balvano in southern Italy, an overloaded train was stuck for almost an hour. long tunnel. Most of the passengers were poisoned by combustion products and suffocated. Those who were in the last carriages, closer to fresh air. No one then began to conduct a thorough investigation.

Free riders and speculators died in Italy in 1944

The train, as it turned out, was driven by two locomotives at once. Most likely, the uncoordinated actions of the drivers led to its complete stop.

The management of the Italian railways then developed a special procedure for passing tunnels and generally tightened safety requirements. Although at first they tried to hush up information about this tragedy. The authorities in Spain acted in the same way a little earlier, where a similar emergency occurred with another a large number deaths from asphyxia occurred at the very beginning of 1944.

Railway network India is one of the largest in the world. There are not enough trains, so residents get to work and home on rooftops or somehow attached to a carriage. This may be why the disaster in Bihar claimed the lives of more than 800 people.

On June 6, 1981, a passenger train was overturned by hurricane winds from the bridge into the Bagmati River. The rescue operation lasted for several days. Only two hundred bodies were discovered. Most of carried away by the current.

They spoke out in the press alternative versions what happened. Among the reasons is a faulty brake system. There was also speculation that the train crashed into the river when the driver suddenly braked a cow crossing the tracks.

For this disaster, in which about 700 people died French soldiers, no one was punished. Those who were tried to be brought to justice were eventually acquitted by the court. On December 12, 1917, military train No. 612 was returning from Italy. Employees were given a two-week vacation to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones.

In the commune of Madon, several more carriages were added to the train. The driver refused to take the overloaded train to Paris, guessing possible problems on the way, but then, under the threat of a tribunal, he still agreed. In the area of ​​Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, the train began to descend the slope, accelerated too much and could no longer brake. On one of the sharp turns, the coupling on the train broke. The locomotive rushed on. Wooden carriages at full speed began to take turns flying off the rails and crashing into each other.

The candles lighting the carriages started a fire. The ammunition being transported began to explode and the fire flared up more and more. Everything was put out within a day. They tried to classify information about the tragedy, but four days later the newspapers already reported about the incident.

No other railway disaster in the USSR or in modern Russia can be compared in scale to the one that occurred on June 4, 1989 at the Ulu-Telyak station in the Iglinsky district of Bashkiria, 50 km from Ufa.

It all happened at night. During the passage of two passenger trains (“Novosibirsk-Adler” and “Adler-Novosibirsk”), a hydrocarbon gas reservoir exploded gas mixture which leaked from the gas pipeline. The fire could have occurred due to a spark resulting from braking.

The scale of the emergency was terrifying. According to unofficial data, the power of the explosion was approximately the same as in Hiroshima - about 12 kilotons.

The largest accident near Ufa claimed the lives of 575 people

The carriages were scattered near the tracks. Some were completely burned out. About 200 people died immediately, and several hundred more victims died from their injuries and burns in the following days.

In terms of the number of victims, the disaster is one of the five largest such incidents in the world. The official death toll is 575 people, almost a third were children (both trains were carrying summer camp guests).

The most amazing train crashes that happened in different corners of our planet:

1. The train flew through the veranda after its brakes failed.

Gare Montparnasse, one of the six largest railway terminals in Paris, became infamous on October 22, 1895 due to the derailment of the Granville-Paris Express, which ran over a persistent beam. The locomotive drove along the entire station, which was 30 meters long, broke through a 60-centimeter thick wall, flew out of the building through the veranda and fell nose-first onto de Rennes Street, which was 10 meters below the veranda. Two of the 131 passengers, as well as a fireman and two conductors, were injured. The only casualty of this crash was a woman who was below on the street at the time of the crash and who was killed by a falling piece of wall. The accident was caused by Westinghouse brakes that did not work, and also by the fault of the driver, who wanted to catch up on the time he was late for. The conductor was fined 25 francs, and the driver was fined 50 francs.

2. Deadliest crash ever high speed train


Train crash in German village Eschede was the deadliest disaster involving a high-speed train. It happened on June 3, 1998 near the village of Eschede in the Celle region, part of Lower Saxony, Germany. The crash killed 101 people and injured 88 people. The disaster surpassed the Dahlerau train crash in 1971 in death toll and became the deadliest accident in history. Federal Republic Germany. The cause of the derailment was one small crack in one wheel, which finally failed and caused the train to derail at a rail switch. The train was severely damaged by a collision with road bridge which occurred after the train derailed.

3. The most fatal train accident in the world, which occurred because the train was hit by a tsunami


The 2004 Sri Lanka train crash caused by the tsunami was the deadliest train accident in history. The derailment occurred when a tsunami destroyed a crowded coastal passenger train. railway tracks Sri Lanka. The tsunami generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake carried away the most large number lives throughout history railway. More than 1,700 people died, much more than the previous train accident.

The train, known as the Queen of the Sea Line, was a regular passenger train traveling between the cities of Colombo and Galle. On Sunday 26 December 2004, it left Colombo at approximately 6:55 am, carrying approximately 1,000-1,500 paying passengers and an unknown number of stowaways.

At 9:30 a.m. the beach in the village of Peraliya, near Telwatta, was hit by the first huge waves, formed as a result of an earthquake that occurred shortly before off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The train stopped as water rose around it. Hundreds local residents They considered that the train was holding well on the rails, and climbed onto its roof so that they would not be washed away by the wave. Others stood next to him, hoping that the train would take over shock wave. The wave flooded the carriages and caused panic among passengers. Next, more big wave lifted the train and brought it down on houses and trees located along the rails, sweeping away everyone who sought salvation behind the train. The eight carriages were so packed with people that it was impossible to open their doors, and they quickly filled with water, in which almost everyone inside gradually drowned as waves rolled in one after another. According to calculations based on the state of the coastline, as well as on the basis of the highest water level, the height of the tsunami waves ranged from 7.5 to 9 meters above sea level and from 2 to 3 meters above the level of the train roof.

4. The hijacking of a train and the subsequent disaster of its collision with a house

The theft of cars, trucks or motorcycles is unlikely to surprise anyone, but the hijacking of an entire train is a completely different matter. You don't hear about this every day. The thief was a 20-year-old woman who worked as a cleaner in Stockholm. She stole the keys to the train, then drove it to the end of the tracks at high speed and crashed it into a house after the train derailed and went over the street.

Fortunately, except for the woman, whose name was not disclosed, no one was injured. The disaster happened early morning, and there was no one on the train yet. No one was in the house at the time of the collision either.

Note: It was later determined that the train was not hijacked. The cleaning lady accidentally started it while cleaning the cabin and couldn't figure out how to stop it.

5. An unstoppable train caused a bridge to collapse.


The Lewisham railway accident occurred at approximately 6:20 pm on 4 December 1957 on a bypass line at Louisham, London. In thick fog, an electric train bound for Hayes stopped at a signal under a bridge, and the following steam locomotive, bound for Ramsgate, crashed into it. This collision caused the bridge to collapse onto the locomotive. As a result, 90 people died and 109 people were injured and were hospitalized. The bridge had to be completely removed, and it took a full week before the railway line underneath was operational again. The bridge was rebuilt and put into operation only a month later.
After two trials, the locomotive driver was found not guilty of murder charges. The Department of Transport found that he did not slow down after passing two warning lights, so he could not have stopped after the warning signal. Ultimately, the Department of Transportation concluded that an automatic warning system could have prevented the collision.

6. Train collision in India


The Firozabad train derailment occurred in India in 1995 when two trains, the Kalindi express and the Purshottam express, collided near Firozabad. The Purshottam Express hit the Kalindi Express from behind when the latter stopped due to jammed brakes after it hit a cow. At the time of the collision, almost all the people were asleep. About 200 people were killed and about 200 more were injured.

7Train Collision Caused by Betting Races


The caption written by William Middleton for this photo in his book The Interurban Era reads:

“Two trains of the Fonda, Johnstown, & Gloversville Railroad Company were disgraced after their inappropriate competition for space at the Gloversville, New York, railroad station.”

8The Amazing Train Derailment With The Loss Of Only One Human Life

The tragedy occurred in a peaceful picturesque place, in the heart of the Lake District.

On a cold, rainy evening in February 2007, the tranquility of a farm near the tiny village of Grayrigg was shattered when the Virgin Pendolino London to Glasgow express, traveling from London to Glasgow, derailed on the main line. West Coast(West Coast Main Line). In just a few seconds, eight cars of the Class 390 high-speed electric train derailed, resulting in injuries to 86 passengers and two crew members out of the 105 people who were on the train at the time. This happened because the locomotive, traveling at a speed of approximately 153 kilometers per hour, derailed and dragged the train cars with it, which were scattered along an earthen embankment.

As a result, only one person died - 84-year-old Margaret Peggy Masson, who survived the incident but died later in hospital.