Biggest rail accidents

I was watching news today and saw this 59 People Killed in Indian Train Crash which made me very sad. I remember when I was little, I saw on TV a train in India and there were a lot of people on that train; on the roof, hooked aside and stuff like that. I was wondering how come that train can even go on tracks. After I watched news on TV, I decided to take a look what are the biggest train accidents that had ever happened in human history. I will share my findings with you my friends. I have listed 10 the most terrified accidents that happened.

10. Firozabad train disaster (358)

he Firozabad rail disaster occurred on August 20, 1995 on the near Firozabad on the Delhi-Kanpur section of India’s Northern Railway, at 02:55 when a passenger train ran into a train which had stopped after hitting a cow, killing 358 (although some sources put the death toll at over 400). The accident happened in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; both trains were bound for the Indian capital, Delhi. The first train, the "Kalindi Express" from Kanpur struck a cow but was unable to proceed as its brakes were damaged. It was then struck from behind at a speed of 70 mph by the "Purushottam Express" from Puri. Three carrages of the Kanpur express were destroyed, the engine and front two carriages of the Puri train were derailed. Most of the 2200 passengers aboard the two trains were asleep at the time of the accident.

9. Al Ayyat train disaster (383)

The Al Ayyat train disaster happened at 02:00 on the morning of 20 February 2002 on a passenger train of eleven carriages, running from Cairo to Luxor. In its fifth carriage a cooking gas cylinder exploded and created a fire which spread as the train ran. Seven of its carriages, all third class, were burnt almost to cinders. The official figure given by officials at the time was of 383 people dead, all Egyptian. However, considering that 7 carriages were burnt to the ground and each carriage was packed with at least double the maximum carrying capacity of 150, this figure is considered by many to be a great underestimate. The dubious nature of the given number of deaths also stems from the fact that there was no proper passenger list, so accounting for those missing was almost an impossible job at the time. As well as this, the carriages were so badly burnt and the fire so intense that a huge number of corpses had simply been turned to ash. As there was no means of communication between the driver and the rear carriages, the driver did not know of the fire until about 2 hours after the fire had begun and so many people who attempted to flee from the overcrowded carriages were killed in the jump. Many leading Egyptian figures have commentated that the official figure of 383 dead is grossly inaccurate and was an attempt to lessen the damage done to the reputation of the government in the eyes of the Egyptian people. Many consider a figure of around 1000 to be closer to the actual number of dead.

 8. Awash train disaster (428)

On January 14, 1985 when a train derailed at Awash on the Addis Ababa to Djibouti line plunging four of its five carriages into a ravine; the crash was estimated to have killed at least 428 and injured 500 of the estimated 1,000 on board. It was the worst accident in Africa. It is believed that the cause of the crash was the excessive speed of the train round a curve on a bridge across the ravine. The derailment happened at 13:40 between Arba and Khora.

 7. Torre del Bierzo train disaster (200-500+)

The Torre del Bierzo rail disaster occurred on January 3, 1944 near the village of Torre del Bierzo in the El Bierzo region of Spain’s León province when three trains collided inside a tunnel. Although officially 78, the death toll at the time was estimated to be 200-250 but studies conducted more recently have estimated the death toll at over 500. At 20:30 the previous evening the Galicia mail express left Madrid bound for La Coruña consisting of 12 carriages hauled by two 4-8-0 ‘Mastodon’ steam locomotives. It was running two hours late when it arrived at Astorga and was having problems with its brakes; nine minutes being spent at Astorga while they were checked. Later one of the locomotives was removed due to a hot axle box. The train was now three hours late, and had serious problems with its brakes during the steep descent through Branuelas, but the fateful decision was made to continue. The train was scheduled to stop at Albares but failed to do so, despite all hand-brakes on the carriages being applied and sand being applied. The Albares station master immediately telephoned Torre del Bierzo to say that the train had lost its brakes on the steep descent. At Torre del Bierzo the station master ran for his office and attempts were made to put sleepers on the line to slow the runaway train but to no avail as it ran through with its whistle incessantly blowing and its brake shoes applied; heading for tunnel No 20, located just beyind the station.

Meanwhile a shunting engine and three carriages were travelling though the tunnel away from the station having been warned by the station master about the runaway mail train. The last two carriages were still in the tunnel when they were struck by the mail train; as were the first six carriages of the mail train which began to burn, their wood construction being ignited by the train gaslighting. Oblivious to the tragedy a coal train was approaching the tunnel from the opposite direction with 27 loaded waggons. The crash having destroyed the signaling cables, the signals were set at clear as the coal train left tunnel No 21. The unharmed driver of the shunting engine desperately tried to warn the oncoming coal train which managed to slow, but it still ploughed into the shunting locomotive’s train, killing the shunting engine driver and four railwaymen on the coal train. The fire burned for two days delaying any rescue effort and making the identification of most of the victims impossible.

Strict censorship at the time under the regime of General Franco in the wake of the Spanish Civil War meant that it received very little publicity at the time, and the official RENFE file on the accident has also been lost. Many people travelled without tickets so it was difficult to estimate the true number of passengers aboard, but survivors state that the train was packed, many travelling to the Christmas fair in Bembibre. It was only many years later that the scale of the accident was revealed and there is still some dispute over its actual magnitude, some sources maintaining a death toll between 200-250. Tunnel No. 20, the scene of the accident was closed in 1985 due to geological problems.

6. Balvano train disaster (521-600+)

Just after 6 P.M. on March 2, 1944 the locomotive No. 8017, reached Eboli, beyond Battipaglia. At about 11:40 P.M. the train carried many illegal passengers. The train chugged slowly upward another 4 miles to stop at the small Balvano station that lay between two long tunnels. A downhill train was having locomotive trouble. While No. 8017 waited for the "clear track ahead" signal, half of its 47 cars were in the lower tunnel wrapped in a blanket of black coal smoke left by its two locomotives. The tunnel was steeply graded and the freight train grossly overloaded with its passengers. The train stalled with almost all the cars inside the tunnel. The passengers and crew were overcome by the smoke and fumes so slowly that they failed to notice the dangers. Most of the few survivors were in the last few cars which were still in the open air. The main culprit was carbon monoxide gas produced as a by-product of combustion, and carbon monoxide poisoning is a well recognized danger when machines are used, or fires occur in enclosed environments. It combines with haemoglobin when inhaled, so the victim dies of anoxia or lack of oxygen. It is still the principal cause of death in mine disasters after a fire or explosion. There was little publicity at the time owing to the war, but more details became available in the 1950s when relatives of the dead victims pursued a court case against the railway company.

5. Ufa train disaster (575)

The Ufa train disaster happened on June 4, 1989 at 1:15 (local time) near the town of Asha in the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway. (Ufa is a much larger and commonly known city, which is situated not far from Asha). A liquefied petroleum gas explosion killed 575 and wounded 623 (some sources claim that up to 645 were killed and more than 700 wounded), making it the most deadly railway accident in Soviet history, as two trains passing each other threw sparks near a leaky pipeline. Both trains were carrying children; one returning from a holiday break on the Black Sea, one taking children there. The explosion was so powerful it blew out windows in Asha, eight miles (13 km) from the epicenter. The explosion is said to have been equal to 10 kilotons of TNT, almost as powerful as the Hiroshima explosion. Three hours before the explosion, engineers noticed a drop in the pressure, but they turned up the pressure back to normal instead of checking for leaks.

4. Ciurea train disaster (600-1000)

The Ciurea rail disaster occurred on 13 January 1917, at Ciurea station, Romania, a station with passing loop on the railway line from Iasi to Barlad. Between 600 and 1,000 passengers were killed. Approaching Ciurea from Barlad the line descends a steep bank some 10 miles in length between Barnova and Ciurea, the gradient in places being a slope of 1 in 15 (6.7%). At 1 PM a train of 26 carriages, loaded with soldiers and refugees fleeing from the advance of von Mackensen’s troops, left Barnova. Passengers were crowded on the carriage roofs and between the carriages above the buffers. When the train was moving a soldier closed the Westinghouse train pipe *censored*, rendering the train brakes inoperative. As the train began to descend the bank the driver was unable to apply the Westinghouse brake, and the train accelerated quickly. The straight line at the foot of the bank at Ciurea station was occupied by a second train, and the runaway train was switched to the right into the loop at high speed. The train derailed, only 2 of the 26 carriages remaining on the line, and caught fire burning down to a pile of twisted ironwork.

3. Modane train disaster (800-1000)

On 12 December 1917,  between 800-1000 French soldiers returning home on leave from fighting in North East Italy were killed in a catastrophic crash. During World War I there was a shortage of locomotives able to run in the area, so the decision was made to couple two trains, consisting of nineteen coaches carrying the troops, to a single 4-6-0 engine; of those coaches only the first three had air brakes, the remaining coaches only had hand brakes or no brakes at all. The driver initially refused to drive the engine with such an overloaded train, which was now four times the safety limit for the engine, but the driver was threatened with military discipline and the train continued. On its approach to Modane the train descended into a valley, the driver applied the brakes without effect due to the heavy load. After continuing with excessive speeds into the valley for nearly 4 miles at an estimated 75 mph the first coach derailed causing a pile-up that resulted in a fire. Because of the fire and impact, only 425 of the 800-1000 troops killed could be identified.

2. Bihar train disater (1000+)

In the Bihar train disaster on June 6, 1981, a passenger train carrying 800 or more passengers between Mansi and Saharsa, India derailed and plunged into the Bagmati river while it was crossing a bridge. After five days, over 200 bodies were recovered, with hundreds more missing that were feared washed away by the river. Estimates of total deaths range from 500 to 800 or more.
The cause of the accident is uncertain as there are multiple causes listed online:

• a cyclone
• flash flooding
• brake failure while trying to avoid hitting a water buffalo

1. Queen of the Sea train disaster (1700+)

The Queen of the Sea rail disaster occurred when a crowded passenger train was destroyed on a coastal railway in Sri Lanka by the tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, and resulted in the greatest loss of life in railroad history. More than 1,700 people died, surpassing the previous record set by the Bihar train disaster in India in 1981, when a train derailed and fell off a bridge, drowning about 800 people.

Due to the huge scale of the disaster, the authorities were unable to cope with the devastation, and emergency services and military forces were so stretched that immediate rescue was not an option. In fact, the Sri Lankan authorities had no idea where the train was for several hours, until it was spotted from the air. The local emergency services were destroyed, and it was a long time before help arrived. Dozens of people badly injured in the disaster died in the wreckage during the day, and many bodies were not retrieved for over a week. Some families descended on the area determined to find their relatives.

According to the Sri Lankan authorities, only a few dozen people on the train survived. The estimated death toll was at least 1,700 people, and probably over 2,000, although only approximately 900 bodies were recovered by the authorities, as many were swept out to sea or taken away unofficially by relatives. The town of Peraliya was also destroyed, losing hundreds of citizens to the waves and all but ten buildings. Over 200 of the bodies retrieved were not identified or claimed, and were buried three days later in a Buddhist ceremony near the torn railway line.