Railway accident

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contemporary depiction of the Versailles railway accident in 1842 by A. Provost
Salisbury, 1856

A railway accident is an undesirable or unintentional sudden event which is causally related to the operation of a railway and its typical dangers and which results in personal injury or property damage that is not entirely insignificant. The Swiss Safety Investigation Board (SUST) defines accidents as events that result in fatal or serious injury to a person, property damage in excess of CHF 100,000 or the release of certain quantities of dangerous goods .

history

Accident

Accident at an open level crossing on the Los Angeles-Oakland, California route. The train no. 14, Coast Starlight , of Amtrak met the white pick-up, which broke into two parts and another vehicle (red), met when it was thrown by the train.

Accidents have been known since the early days of the railway . The oldest record about it comes from a British mine in the 17th century . The vehicles were then with Brawn on wooden rails moving. However, the sources are very different. From the early days of the railway it is very sketchy. Only in Great Britain , where a state railway inspection was established as early as 1840, do their reports of accidents represent a relatively closed block of sources.

With the use of the steam engine to generate energy for the operation of the railroad, with the invention of the steam locomotive , there were accidents that were specifically related to steam engines, such as boiler blasts or fires , and those with the great mass , the speed and the low friction of the wheel-rail system and the resulting relatively long braking distances for a train . A third source of accidents is non- rail interference in rail traffic , especially through other traffic crossing ( level crossings ), suicides and assassins .

The definition given by the Reichsgericht in 1879 for a railway and a railway accident has become famous :

"A company aimed at the repeated movement of people or things over not entirely insignificant distances on a metal basis, which by its consistency, construction and smoothness is intended to enable the transport of large weights or the achievement of a relatively significant speed of transport movement, and by This peculiarity in connection with the natural forces also used to generate the transport movement (such as steam, electricity, animal, human muscle activity, with an inclined plane of the railway also its own weight, the transport vessels and their cargo, etc.) in the operations of the company on the same is capable of producing a comparatively powerful (depending on the circumstances only useful in a purposeful way, or human life-destroying and human health injurious) effect. "

The systematic recording of accidents and their investigation began around the same time. In the early years the Austrian engineer Ludwig Ritter von Stockert was the leader here , after the abolition of the nobility predicate in Austria in 1919 "only" Ludwig Stockert was left .

With technical progress, the resulting sources of accidents were added, while others no longer existed (such as the dangers of gas lighting). In the context of electrification , accidents with traction current have occurred to this day . The number of fatal accidents caused by contact with the overhead contact line is still considerable today.

Thanks to modern train control systems, the risk of rail accidents has decreased. By adding additional 500 Hz magnets to the punctual train control system, the number of collisions caused by disregarding signals has decreased drastically in Germany and Austria. The ZUB 121 system achieved similar successes in Switzerland and KVB in France .

The Indian Railways announced that more than 27,000 people died in rail accidents there in 2014 alone. About half of them were people who fell off a train or walked on the tracks and were run over.

Psychological effects

The psychological effects of serious railway accidents on the accident victims are often profound. Historically, these were the first major industrialization accidents that also affected a broad public. Railway accidents were therefore one of the starting points for trauma research . The accident victim experienced himself as completely helpless and defenseless in the face of what was happening, with no chance of a meaningful reaction to it. In contrast to natural disasters , a railway accident was usually the result of incorrect human behavior. The explanatory pattern that this had always been the case and nothing could be done about it failed here. With regard to the material damage, instruments such as liability insurance and the legal and dogmatic construction of operational risk were reacted to.

On the other hand, the consequences of psychological damage were much less manageable: Charles Dickens was on his way back from Paris on June 9, 1865, when the train coming from Folkestone to London derailed on the bridge over the Beult , a tributary of the Medway and brought the bridge to collapse because tracks were removed on the South Eastern Main Line in the course of a construction site without the construction site being adequately secured. The writer was not physically injured in this Staplehurst railway accident . At the scene of the accident, he first helped other travelers. In the accident, however, 10 travelers died and 40 others were injured. Charles Dickens was psychologically traumatized by the accident . He has had major problems traveling by train since then and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

Other travelers who got out of accidents alive were far more psychologically traumatized, up to and including incapacity for work . This led to the first lawsuits for damages - in line with the technically advanced development there, first in Great Britain - in which medical reports were also used as evidence in this regard . According to the mechanistic worldview prevailing at the time , there had to be a material cause for this psychological damage. The British doctor John Eric Erichsen developed the thesis of the "Railway Spine" ("Railway backbone") , according to which the nervous system of the spinal column in the psychologically traumatized victims was damaged by the mechanical forces of the accident (although this cannot be physically proven was). Other scientists assumed a corresponding damage to the brain . In Germany, which was lagging behind technical developments at the time, Hermann Oppenheim, for example, advocated corresponding theses some time later . This mechanistic view of trauma emergence was prevalent well into the 20th century.

Such trauma was even observed in relatives of the victims of railway accidents: In 1850, Maria Fischer, 22 years old, was admitted to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Frankfurt am Main with psychosomatic disorders . After her brother and only living relative was killed in a railroad accident, she stopped menstruating and paralyzed her leg muscles.

Accident investigation

In the time of the state railways , in which the railways were organized as a state authority, they investigated accidents themselves. With the privatization of the German Federal Railroad and the opening of the state rail network to third parties in Switzerland, accident investigation centers were created that were independent of the railway operators work.

Systematics

Escaped Saltsjöbanan train rammed a residential building in 2013

In general, the causes of rail accidents can be classified as follows:

  • Technical failure , e.g. B. des
  • Human error
    • of the train crew (e.g. ignored signals , excessive speed)
    • of the route staff (e.g. disregard of driving regulations)
    • of the technical staff (e.g. disregard of guidelines for inspection or maintenance)
    • by travelers (e.g. stepping on track systems, getting too close to the clearance profile )
  • External influences on rail operations

However, it must be taken into account that this system is much less clear in practice than it appears here, and that, as a rule, several components interact in an accident.

Even Ludwig Ritter von Stockert systematized railway accidents by their causes. This scheme was also very common later and is still used today by the railway accident investigation centers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These offices publish their investigation reports and annual reports on a regular basis.

An alternative is to classify railway accidents according to the damage they have suffered. This system is used, for example, in the list of serious accidents in rail traffic or by the Swiss Accident Investigation Board (SUST).

Outstanding accidents

Single examples

One of the wagons washed away by the tsunami in Sri Lanka

The Peraliya railway accident occurred on December 26, 2004 in the southern province on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka . The tsunami triggered by the seaquake in the Indian Ocean flooded the railway line and tore a train off the rails . With well over 1,000 victims (estimates range up to 1,700), it is the most serious railway accident in the world.

The Quintinshill railway accident in Dumfriesshire , Scotland on May 22, 1915 during World War I was a "mass collision" involving five trains - three trains crashed and two others were damaged. 230 people died and a further 246 were injured because the responsible railway workers disregarded or circumvented safety rules.

Quintinshill: Course of events
Unfortunate train of the Tsar

Derailed in the railway accident in Borki on October 17th, July / October 29,  1888 greg. the court train of Tsar Alexander III pulled by two locomotives . on the way from Crimea to St. Petersburg south of Kharkov . 23 travelers died. The information on the injured varies between 12 and 36. The royal family remained uninjured, although the dining car in which they were staying at the time of the accident was badly damaged. The cause of the accident was never clarified, the private railway company and state officials tried to assign the blame to the other. Presumably, the cause of the accident was a combination of a serious train that too fast an insufficient superstructure was driving. However, rumors persisted that it was an assassination attempt . However, there is no evidence of this. In its propaganda, the Russian monarchy stylized the “miraculous rescue of the Tsar and his family” as a divine judgment on the legitimation of the Tsar's rule over Russia.

In the railway accident on the Firth of Tay Bridge , the Firth of Tay Bridge collapsed on December 28, 1879 under the express train from Edinburgh to Dundee . None of the 75 people on the train survived. The train was driving in the middle of the bridge during a hurricane when it gave way and crashed into the Firth of Tay with the train. The bridge had collapsed under the weight of the train, the wind load of the hurricane and the excessive dynamic forces of the train under these circumstances. Ultimately, however, was the poor construction of the bridge.

Accidents with more than 100 fatalities

Number of dead designation Country year reason Accident type
1700 Peraliya railway accident Sri Lanka 2004 Natural disaster Zug is washed away by tsunami
1007+ Hamont railway accident Belgium 1918 Explosion of an ammunition train
0700 Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne railway accident France 1917 Military intervention in railway operations Derailment on a slope
0600+ Ciurea railway accident Romania 1917 Inadvertent intervention by a third party Brake failure, rear-end collision
0600 Guadalajara Railway Accident (1915) Mexico 1915 Overloaded train? Brake failure
0575 Railway accident at Ufa Soviet Union 1989 Technical failure outside of rail operations Explosion, major fire
0500+ Balvano railway accident Italy 1944 Carbon monoxide poisoning Tunnel accident
0428 Awash railway accident Ethiopia 1985 Over the speed limit derailment
0400 Kalisz railway accident Russia (then: occupied by Germany; today: Poland ) 1914 wrong course setting collision
0383 Ayyat railway accident Egypt 2002 Draft fire
0355 Quipungo railway accident Angola 1993 attack derailment
0335 Firozabad railway accident (1995) India 1995 Dispatcher error Rear-end collision
0320 Railway accident in Nishapur Iran 2004 Runaway train Explosion of dangerous goods
0307 Sangi railway accident Pakistan 1990 Dispatcher error Rear-end collision
0303 Baku metro accident Azerbaijan 1995 Technical failure Tunnel fire
0300+ Montemorelas railway accident Mexico 1915
0300+ Songjiang Air Raid China 1938 Air raid
0300 Changsha Railway Accident China 1918 Military intervention in rail traffic Head-on collision
0300 (approx.) Guadalajara Railway Accident (1955) Mexico 1955 Derailment and crash into a ravine
0300 Tolunda railway accident Angola 1994 Brake failure Crash into a ravine
0287 Gaisal railway accident India 1999 Dispatcher error Head-on collision
0281 Igandu railway accident Tanzania 2002 Brake failure Rear-end collision
0252 Zenza railway accident Angola 2001 attack Derailment, fire and massacre
0250+ Sahiwal railway accident Pakistan 1957 Dispatcher error Rear-end collision and fire
0250+ Mansi railway accident India 1981 Derailment on bridge and crash into river
0250 San Salvador railway accident El Salvador 1934 Explosion of dangerous goods
0248 Virilla Canyon Railway Accident Costa Rica 1926 Lack of upper structure Derailment, crash into a ravine
0230 Saltillo railway accident Mexico 1972 Braking failure of scrapped vehicles Derailment and fire
0230 Quintinshill railway accident United Kingdom 1915 Dispatcher error Multiple rear-end collision with 5 trains
0220 Yaoundé railway accident Cameroon 1998 Derailment, explosion
0209 Khanna railway accident India 1998 Broken rail collision
0207 Tank car explosion at BASF Germany 1948 Leak on parked tank wagon Ignition of the heavy gas atmosphere
0207 Bomb attacks in Mumbai 2006 India 2006 Bomb attacks
0204 Lagny railway accident France 1933 Signal crossing Rear-end collision
0200+ Cuautla railway accident Mexico 1881 Construction flaw Bridge collapse
0200+ Ephesus railway accident Ottoman Empire 1912 different representations probably: collision
0200+ Railway accident at Torre del Bierzo Spain 1944 Brake failure Tunnel accident, rear-end collision
0200+ Railway accident on the Liziyida Bridge People's Republic of China 1981 Natural disaster Bridge collapse
0200+ Bàu Cá railway accident Vietnam 1982 Over the speed limit derailment
0200 (approx.) Railway accident in Jiangxi China 1933 unknown derailment
0200 Nowy Dwór railway accident Poland 1949 Newspaper duck Hoax
0192 Tenga railway accident Mozambique 2002 Insufficiently secured and runaway vehicles Head-on collision
0192 Fire in the subway in Daegu South Korea 2003 External intervention in rail operations Tunnel fire
0191 Madrid train stops Spain 2004 Bomb attacks
0190 Railway accident at Ajikawaguchi station Japan 1940 Derailment and fire
0186 Genthin railway accident Germany 1939 Signal crossing Rear-end collision
0185 Aracaju railway accident Brazil 1946 derailment
0184 Railway accident at Hanno Japan 1947 Over the speed limit derailment
0179 Kendal Railway Accident Jamaica 1957 Adjusted stopcock of the braking system Brake failure, derailment
0171 Sambhu railway accident India 1948 Buffer crossing
0161 Yokohama Railway Accident (1963) Japan 1963 Multiple collision with 3 trains
0161 Ryongchon Railway Accident North Korea 2004 Shunting accident Explosion disaster
0160 Mikawashima Railway Accident Japan 1962 Signal crossing Multiple collision with 3 trains
0159 Rzepin railway accident Poland 1952 derailment
0153 Zagreb railway accident Yugoslavia 1974 Driving errors, excessive speed derailment
0153 Bintaro railway accident Indonesia 1987 Dispatcher error Head-on collision
0151 Tangiwai railway accident New Zealand 1953 Natural disaster Zug is torn away from Lahar
0150 Railway accident from drama Bulgaria (today: Greece ) 1913 Clutch crack The escaping wagons collide with an occupied train
0150 Moradabad railway accident India 1920 Rear-end collision
0150 Saint-Fons railway accident France 1945 collision
0150 Railway accident in Székesfehérvár Hungary 1951 Wrong decision by the signal box employee collision
0150 Langa Langa railway accident Nigeria 1970 derailment
0150 Kanpur railway accident India 2016 derailment
0148 Manikpara railway accident India 2010 attack Derailment and collision
0144 Ariyalur railway accident India 1956 Derailment and crash of the bridge
0142 to 236 Benavídez railway accident Argentina 1970 Failed train protection Rear-end collision
0139 Kazipet railway accident India 1954 Bridge collapse Train falls into the river
0137 Sarhad railway accident Pakistan 2005 Signal failure Multiple collision of 3 trains
0133 Mvoungouti railway accident (1991) Republic of the Congo 1991 Head-on collision
0132 Turenne railway accident Algeria 1932 Embankment softened by rain crash
0131 Bouhalouane railway accident Algeria 1982 Insufficient security of parked vehicles Head-on collision
0130+ Rafiganj railway accident India 2002 Track deficiency or stop Derailment on the bridge and crash
0130 Tongi railway accident Bangladesh 1989 Head-on collision
0130 Barwałd Średni railway accident Poland (General Government) 1944 Dispatcher error? Head-on collision
0129 Bombardment of Xàtiva Spain 1939 Air raid
0128 Mangueira railway accident Brazil 1958 Signal failure Head-on collision
0128 Dhanushkodi railway accident India 1964 Natural disaster Train washed away by tidal wave
0128 Kasumbalesa railway accident Democratic Republic of Congo 1987 Collision at the level crossing derailment
0127 Cazadero railway accident Mexico 1945
0126 Rongjiawan Railway Accident People's Republic of China 1997 Signal failure Rear-end collision
0125 Mirshah railway accident Pakistan 1997 Brake failure Rear-end collision
0122 Gifhorn railway accident (1941) Germany 1941 Signal crossing Rear-end collision
077 to 120+ Champa railway accident India 1997 Construction site accident derailment
0120 (approx.) Ghaziabad railway accident India 1908 Failure of the train protection system Head-on collision
0119 Bihta railway accident India 1937 Unexplained cause derailment
0119 Anchieta railway accident Brazil 1952 Broken rail collision
0118 Railway accident in Stéblová Czechoslovakia 1960 Signal disregard Collision and fire
0117 Mahbubnagar railway accident India 1956 Bridge collapse
0116 Ratu Jaya railway accident Indonesia 1968 Collision of two trains
0114 Valigonda railway accident India 2005 Natural disaster Bridge washed away
0113 Moimenta-Alcafache railway accident Portugal 1985 Dispatcher error Head-on collision
0112 Nebukawa Railway Accident Japan 1923 Earthquake and landslide Train is torn into the sea
0112 Shitan Railway Accident China 1937 explosion fire
0112 Railway accident at Harrow and Wealdstone Railway Station United Kingdom 1952 Signal disregard Multiple collision of 3 trains
0111 Eden railway accident United States of America 1904 Natural disaster Train washed away
0110 Tangua railway accident Brazil 1950 Natural disaster Bridge collapse
0109 Drownino railway accident Soviet Union 1952 Horse on track derailment
0108 Railway accident in the Vierzy tunnel France 1972 Lack of building construction Tunnel collapse
0107 Amagasaki Railway Accident Japan 2005 Engine driver error Derailment due to excessive speed
0106 Yokohama Railway Accident (1951) Japan 1951 Inadequate security of construction work Draft fire
0106 Kamensk-Shakhtinsky railway accident Soviet Union 1987 Improper intervention in the brake system Rear-end collision
0106 Yangzhuang Railway Accident People's Republic of China 1978 Rear-end collision
0105 Railway accident on Lake Ashtamudi India 1988 Natural disaster Crash from bridge
0105 Hachiōji railway accident Japan 1945 Dispatcher error Head-on collision, trains crashed into the river
0104 Tawwi and Peinzalok railway accident Burma 1921 Head-on collision between a passenger and a freight train
0104 Custóias railway accident Portugal 1964 derailment
0104 Guasava railway accident Mexico 1989 storm Bridge collapse
0103 Railway accident in Šakvice Czechoslovakia 1953 Drunk train driver runs over signal Rear-end collision
0102+ Aßling railway accident Germany 1945 Dispatcher error Rear-end collision
0102 Railway accident in Wuntho Myanmar 1994 Brake failure Derailment and crash into a ravine
0101 Railway accident near Markdorf Germany 1939 Dispatcher error Head-on collision
0101 ICE accident at Eschede Germany 1998 Material defect Derailment, bridge collapse
0101 Nashville Railway Accident United States of America 1918 Violation of safety regulations Head-on collision
0100 to 300 Firozabad railway accident India 1919 The source is unclear as to the cause. fire
0100+ Milokang railway accident China 1938 Head-on collision
0100+ Railway accident at Peñaranda de Bracamonte Spain 1939 Hot runner (?) Explosion disaster
0100+ Pengpu Railway Accident China 1948 attack
0100+ Miseiktab railway accident Sudan 1965 Head-on collision
0100+ Ghotki railway accident Pakistan 1991 Human error Rear-end collision
0100+ Benaleka railway accident Democratic Republic of Congo 2007 derailment
0100 Costesti railway accident Romania 1913 collision
0100 Suzhou Railway Accident China 1940 Explosives attack
0100 Ankara railway accident Turkey 1948
0100 Railway accident on the Hai Van Pass Vietnam 1953 attack Train falls from bridge
0100 Malmesbury Railway Accident South Africa 1972 derailment
0100? Pogranichnava railway accident Soviet Russia 1920 derailment
0100? Rajnandgaon railway accident India 1985 fire

public perception

reporting

The image of the crashed locomotive in front of Gare Montparnasse became a well-known symbol of technical failure.

Accidents involving passenger trains - or at least those with "personal injury" - are always in the foreground. Freight train accidents, on the other hand, only occur if either people are killed or the accident causes a major disaster. As a rule, it is then about tank wagons with dangerous goods that are involved in the accident. The "small" shunting accidents , which - at least when single wagon traffic still accounted for a significant proportion of rail freight traffic - outnumbered them and often resulted in relatively little damage to property, are below the threshold of public awareness and reporting. Accidents involving the federal railways (SBB) attract more interest in the Swiss media than accidents involving regional meter-gauge railways .

Compared to road traffic, the railroad is a relatively safe means of transport, but as in any technical system, accidents cannot be ruled out here either. The infrequent train accidents appear to be far more interesting for reporting than the everyday road traffic accidents . Often inaccuracies can be found in the reporting, for example the terms locomotive driver / train driver on the one hand and train driver are often confused. Stereotypes are also regularly observed in the reporting : trains involved in accidents generally seem to be “racing”, even if the speed is rather moderate, for example in the case of the Chureb railway accident . The Gorakhdham Express involved was traveling at an average speed of just over 50 km / h. This is criticized in the specialist literature - albeit obviously in vain:

"In exactly the same manner that happens after a major accident today, the press was quick to take lively interest, produce large quantities of inaccurate and irrelevant comment [regarding the Versailles railway accident, 1842], and to express opinion."

"In exactly the same way that it happens today after a major railway accident, the press was quick to spread in large quantities inaccurate and inaccurate comments and opinions [regarding the Versailles railway accident, 1842]."

- Attorney Smith

As far as technical understanding is concerned, errors can often be discovered. For example, if an accident was caused by an electric shock from the contact wire , "a current of 15,000 volts" is called. This statement is wrong in two respects:

  1. Volt indicates the voltage; Amperage, on the other hand, is given in amps.
  2. The voltage plays a rather subordinate role in accidents with electrical power. The amperage and the duration of exposure are primarily decisive for the consequences of the accident, both of which are very high in view of the technical requirements for rail operations.

When reporting on railway accidents, it is also important to note the time interval between reporting and the accident: Immediately after an accident, information on the cause, consequences and victims in particular is often very imprecise. The greater the distance from the event, the more precise the information is, but the more rarely it is reported. If an official report on the cause of the accident is then available - often months later - its results are rarely included in the reporting.

Furthermore, in countries with no free or limited reporting, major railway accidents are usually subject to censorship . The sources of railway accidents in Spain during the Franco dictatorship are often poor, because even the official investigation reports were destroyed after the evaluation and the number of victims was "corrected" downwards. And in the People's Republic of China , there appeared to be no significant rail accidents in the 30-year period between 1948 and 1978.

Railway accident as a literary topic

Staplehurst (1865)

Soon after the railway had established itself in the 19th century as a general and soon also the leading mode of transport in real life and in the consciousness of the people, it became a topic in literature, along with the accidents associated with it.

Railway accident in the film

theme

The railroad has been an interesting topic for the new medium since film recordings began at the end of the 19th century. Soon the railway accident was also included. From around 1907 this topic was very popular in the USA. It was often an exciting moment that the railway accident threatened, but was then averted at the last moment and did not take place. In the cases in which there was a railroad accident in the film, there was the option of setting the relevant scenes - outdoors or in the studio -, cutting a sequence into it as an animated film, or arranging a railroad accident with real vehicles to actually take place and to incorporate the wacky footage into a feature film. Since the latter was a very expensive variant, old vehicles were procured for it and the scenes created in such a deliberately caused accident were also cut into several films. In addition, the filming was made available to the public for a fee, which alone often covered a considerable part of the costs. This happened for the first time for the film "The Wreck" (USA 1914), in which the central scene of the head-on collision of two trains alone cost 10,000 pounds sterling (the equivalent of 200,000 gold marks at the time ) and the plot of the film was designed around this key scene. A number of imitators followed the success of the film. On Coney Island , a film company carried out a real collision in front of a paying audience, filmed it and later cut it into a feature film. Other such events were held in New Jersey until there were no more usable, decommissioned machines to be found.

The oldest railway accidents recorded as cartoon scenes date back to the 19th century. Probably the oldest such scene was recorded by RW Paul in 1897 . Several similar scenes by Georges Méliès followed between 1898 and 1906.

In the case of railroad accidents in the film, there are those that are fictitious and those that are modeled on an accident that actually took place. The latter applies to The General , Trans-America Express / Railway Accident at Washington Union Station or Unstoppable - Out of Control / Incident CSX 8888 .

Another group of films related to railway accidents are educational and educational films that were made to prevent accidents. Many larger state railway administrations in Europe have made such films - sometimes in large numbers. The Swiss Federal Railways are an exception , for which the relationship between production costs and the number of employees who could be shown such films was too unfavorable.

Feature films

The following list contains a list (not exhaustive) of films with railway accident scenes.

title State / year Director / Producer annotation
The Lost Freight Car USA 1911 Lost freight car, burning bridge, but the US President's train is saved.
The wreck USA 1914 First real collision film made for the film.
The Juggernaut USA 1915 Real collision.
La Roue France 1919-1923 Abel Gance
Phantom Express USA 1925 John Adolfi
The General USA 1927 Buster Keaton Real crash of a locomotive from a collapsing bridge. The model was based on a similar event during the American Civil War .
Black Diamont Express USA 1927 Howard Bretherton Runaway car.
Spies Germany 1928 Fritz Lang Assassination attempt on a train.
The wrecker UK 1929 GM Bolvary Real collision. Recordings on the Southern Railway (UK).
Phantom Express USA 1932 Emory Johnson
Seven Sinners UK 1936 Albert de Courville
Union Pacific USA 1939 Cecil B. De Mille
The ghost train UK 1941 Walter Forde Train falls from an open swing bridge into the river.
Train of Events UK 1949 Sidney Cole , Charles Crichton , Basil Dearden
The Greatest Show on Earth ( German : The largest show in the world) USA 1952 Cecil B. DeMille Collision between two circus trains caused by sabotage.
The Bridge on the River Kwai UK 1957 David Lean Bridge collapse.
Lawrence of Arabia UK 1962 David Lean
Emergency UK 1962 British Transport Films Posed accident for an educational film for auxiliary workers in the event of a disaster.
The train USA 1964 John Frankheimer
The Virgin Soldiers UK 1969
Panic on the Tokyo Express Japan 1975 Jun'ya Sato The bullet train escapes the attack, but a freight train blows up.
Silver Streak (Trans America Express) USA 1976 Arthur Hiller Prototype: Railway accident at Washington Union Station : The train goes out of control due to a brake failure.
Runaway Train (alternative title: Express to Hell) USA 1985 Andrei Sergejewitsch Michalkow-Konschalowski Brake failure causes the train to get out of control.
Unstoppable (Unstoppable - Out of Control) USA 2010 Tony Scott Prototype: Incident CSX 8888 : The train gets out of control due to brake failure.

Educational films

Examples of educational and educational films made to prevent accidents are:

  • German Federal Railways :
    • About burning and extinguishing
    • Fire! It's burning!
    • The red rooster goes with them
  • UIC : Sécurité, autout maitre - the main thing is safety - Safty First , 1966.

Videos of accidents

Accident lists

Accident lists according to subject groups

Accident lists by country

literature

Stockholm Östra 1965

Preliminary remark

Again and again there were publications that listed railway accidents, systematized them and, above all, tried to prevent accidents. One problem with their evaluation is that many of these writings were intended for internal service purposes and are therefore bibliographically " gray literature ". When it says: "Collections [of railway accidents] have already published some of the former regional railways from time to time [before 1926]," then it turns out to be extremely difficult to find this literature.

Another problem in German-speaking countries before the Second World War is that it was customary to completely anonymize the descriptions of railway accidents - also with regard to the geographical location of the accident site. This generally makes it impossible to assign these technically very precise descriptions to a specific accident. This was and is handled very differently in the Anglo-Saxon area. Accident reports not only contain exact location information, but also those involved and third parties were (and are) often named by their full names.

Reading list

  • Anonymous ("A Shareholder"): The Case of the Railways considered, especially with reference to Railway Accidents. (PDF) W. H. Smith, London 1852.
  • Adolf Bloß: Railway accidents and their prevention . Transport science teaching company at the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Berlin 1926.
  • Karcev Khazanovskij: Why were the experts wrong? Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-341-00545-5 .
  • Keith Eastlake: The Greatest Railroad Disasters. ISBN 3-8112-1580-9 .
  • John Huntley: Railways in the Cinema . London 1969.
  • Ulfilas Meyer: Kino-Express. The railroad in the world of film . Munich 1985. ISBN 3 7658 0482 7 .
  • Erich Preuss: Railway accidents in Europe. Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70716-7 .
  • Erich Preuss: Journey to Doom. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-71058-7 .
  • Bernhard Püschel: Historical railway disasters. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1977, ISBN 3-88255-838-5 .
  • Hans Joachim Ritzau: Railway disasters in Germany. Splinters of German history . Vol. 1. Landsberg-Pürgen 1979.
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau, Jürgen Hörstel, Thomas Wolski: Shadow of the railway history. 1997, ISBN 3-921304-36-9 .
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau: Shadow of the railway history - catastrophes of the German railways . Part 2, 1993, ISBN 3-921304-86-5 .
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau: Shadows of Railway History - A Comparison of British, US and German Railways. 1987, ISBN 3-921304-69-5 .
  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau: From Siegelsdorf to Aitrang. The railway disaster as a symptom - a study of the history of traffic . Landsberg 1972.
  • Ascanio Schneider u. Armin Masé: Disasters on the rails. Railway accidents, their causes and consequences . Zurich 1968. [very "journalistic", sometimes error-prone]
  • Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .
  • Ludwig Ritter von Stockert : Railway accidents. A contribution to railway operations theory . 2 vols. Leipzig 1913.
  • Ludwig Stockert: Railway accidents (new episode) - Another contribution to railway operations theory . Berlin 1920.
  • Thomas Wunschel: For lower reasons - sabotage and assassinations as causes of accidents . In: Martin Weltner: Railway disasters. Serious train accidents and their causes. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7654-7096-7 , pp. 132-135.
  • Michael Ziegert: The railway accident: responsibility - clarification - settlement . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 7 (2017), pp. 366–368.

Web links

Wiktionary: Zugwlück  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ↑ Two boys died in April and July 1650 in Whickham , County Durham after by Hunten a mine train were run over. These are the oldest known railroad accidents in which people were killed. (David Wragg: Signal Failure: Politics & Britain's Railways. Stroud 2004, ISBN 978-0-7509-3293-6 , p. 46).
  2. ↑ On July 31, 1815 in Philadelphia, County Durham , the boiler of the experimental steam locomotive Mechanical Traveler exploded, killing 16 (according to another source 13) bystanders. This accident is the oldest known boiler explosion of a locomotive and to this day the one with the highest number of deaths. Until the rail accident at Versailles in 1842, this was also the most serious rail accident.
  3. ↑ See: Versailles rail accident .
  4. ↑ A freight train and a passenger train collided head-on near Suffolk , Virginia on August 11, 1837 on a single-track line that was being driven on sight. Three dead and dozen injured were the result. (Southworth Allen Howland: Steamboat disasters and Railroad accidents in the United States: to which is appended accounts of recent shipwrecks, fires at sea, thrilling incidents, etc. Worcester, Massachusetts 1840, pp. 286f.) This was also the first head-on collision between two Trains with fatalities in railway history .
  5. ↑ Cf. for example: schr: accumulation of level crossing accidents . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 12/2015, p. 629.
  6. ↑ The replica of the stylist Ludwig Reiners to this ostentation read in his style primer ( Style primer. The safe way to good German. Munich 1951, ISBN 3-423-34358-3 ):

    "A Reichsgericht is an institution which is supposed to meet the general understanding, but sometimes not completely avoidable, not completely insignificant or relatively huge errors in sentence structure on the inclined plane of the chancellery style made inedible by squiggly and nested periods. which is capable of producing an effect that harms the human sense of language. "

  7. ↑ On November 8, 1900, a passenger train ran into an express train between Mühlheim am Main and Offenbach am Main . The gas from a burst container of the gas lighting in one of the express train cars leaked and ignited on the fire of the driven steam locomotive . The last two cars on the express train caught fire and burned out. Twelve dead and four injured were the result.
  8. ↑ The first such accident occurred in Liverpool on December 22nd, 1901 , when the electric motor of a railcar driving through the tunnel to the underground station Liverpool-Dingle caught fire . Six people died and many others were injured. Another very serious accident of this kind occurred on August 10, 1903 on Paris Métrolinie 2 in Paris . 84 people died.
  9. ↑ In Germany no overall statistics are apparently kept, as a request from the Federal Police revealed.
  10. ↑ When a tunnel partially collapsed on June 16, 1972 near Vierzy , France , through which two diesel railcars were just passing, 108 people died and 87 others were injured.
  11. ↑ Due to a broken rail on a double-track line on November 26, 1998, part of the Golden Temple Express between the stations of Khanna , Punjab , India , and Chawapail derailed . Only minutes later, the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express , operating in the opposite direction, drove into the derailed vehicles . Well over 200 people died.
  12. ↑ On June 3, 1998, at a speed of around 200 km / h near Eschede, the tire of a wheel came loose, which subsequently led to the train derailing . 101 people died and 88 others were seriously injured. It was the worst train accident in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany and of all high-speed trains worldwide.
  13. ↑ In a head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train on the transcontinental route of the Canadian National Railway (CN) in Canada on February 8, 1986 near Hinton , Alberta , after disregarding the signals , 23 people died and a further 71 people were injured. The investigation into the accident uncovered a number of apparently repeated and common practice violations of safety regulations.
  14. ↑ In the head-on collision of a freight train and a crowded passenger train on 22 December 1939 on the railway line Stahringen-Friedrichshafen in Mark village within the boundaries of today Friedrichshafen belonging to local Lipbach 101 people died, 47 others were injured after a train dispatcher a train on the Left the route without his colleague at the next train station accepting him.
  15. ↑ On the night of November 4, 1875, an employee of the Franz-Josefs-Bahn removed a section of rail near Schwarzenau in order to gain recognition by "rescuing" the train. Due to the gathering fog, however, he failed to stop the passenger train from Vienna to Eger . The train derailed . 9 people died.
  16. ↑
  17. ↑ After rats gnawed on the insulation of a signal cable, the signaling technology switched incorrectly, whereupon a local train drove onto a TGV between the Pau and Artix stations in the municipality of Denguin . 39 people were injured (Mr: rear-end collision in southern France due to rodents in the signal box . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 2014/10, p. 510.); on September 1, 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake occurred in Japan . It solved u. a. In and near the Nebukawa station (in Kataura , incorporated into Odawara since 1954 , Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan ) on the Atami Line (today: Tōkaidō Main Line ) a landslide that tore a train and the station facilities into the sea and damaged a second . 112 people died and 13 others were injured.Several accidents occurred on the Jungfrau Railway due to the fact that wagons were overturned from the tracks by strong winds. October 1907, January 1, 1957 and April 10, 1963. (Florian Inäbnit: Jungfraubahn. Leissigen 2003. ISBN 3-907579-27-5 , pp. 153ff). The same happened on the Mecklenburg-Pomerania narrow-gauge railway . In a first accident on March 8, 1893, two passenger cars of a moving train tipped off the track. In the autumn of the same year, the same fate befell freight cars. As a result, the focus of the vehicles was lowered so that such accidents no longer occurred (Wolf-Dietger Machel: Die Mecklenburg-Pommersche Schmalspurbahn . 2nd edition. Stuttgart 1997. ISBN 3-613-71053-6 , pp. 58, 127 ). As early as September 11, 1880 , an accident from this cause occurred in Rimutaka, New Zealand .Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt : Red for Danger lists other accidents that were caused by strong winds . Edition: London 1978. ISBN 0 330 25555 X , pp. 109 f., On. Strong crosswinds also contributed to the railway accident on the Tay Bridge.
  18. ↑ Theodor Fontane immortalized the catastrophe in January 1880 in the mythical ballad Die Brück 'am Tay . (In: Ders .: Gedichte I. 2nd edition, 1995 = Great Brandenburger Edition, pp. 153–155.)
  19. ↑ Probably even 600 dead.
  20. ↑ Depending on the source, very different numbers of victims.
  21. ↑ The locations could not be identified. According to Semmens, p. 62, they are supposed to be about 160 km from Rangoon.
  22. ↑ On November 11, 2013, an unloaded freight train ran into a freight train waiting in front of the exit signal at Hosena station in the city of Senftenberg in Brandenburg . The stationary train was loaded with 3,500 tons of grit . The driver of the approaching train was slightly injured. The driver of the stationary train was in the locomotive at the Zugspitze and was not injured.
  23. ↑ On July 26, 2012 - also at Hosena station - a freight train loaded with gravel could not brake because the shut-off valve on the main air line of the air brake between the locomotive and its first car was closed. Thereupon he passed almost unchecked the entry signal of the Hosena train station, which had to be stopped , followed by two non-closed level crossings and in the train station itself into a second freight train. The force of the impact was so strong that three freight cars were thrown against a guard's interlocking and piled on the rubble of the building. The employee in the signal box was killed.
  24. ↑
    Burning downtown of Lac-Mégantic
    On July 6, 2013, a freight train of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) derailed in the small town of Lac-Mégantic in the Canadian province of Québec , which had rolled driverlessly through a long slope of the Brookport – Mattawamkeag railway line . The train carried crude oil , which leaked from the destroyed tank wagons, ignited and triggered explosions. More than 30 buildings were destroyed, killing at least 47 people.
  25. ↑ See for example: Railway accident at Torre del Bierzo ; Martorell railway accident .
  26. ↑ 1948: Lilong Railway Accident and 1978: Yangzhuang Railway Accident .
  27. ↑ Huntley: Railways , photo page 12 between p. 16 f.
  28. ^ Huntley: Railways , photo pages 12-14 between p. 16 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: Homepage of the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Office .
  2. ↑ Definitions. (No longer available online.) In: Documentation, Railways and Ships, Statistics. SUST, archived from the original on June 22, 2013 ; Retrieved December 14, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sust.admin.ch
  3. ↑ Püschel, p. 6.
  4. ↑ Definition of "railroad" by the German Imperial Court of March 17, 1879 , in the link, however, with the wrong year 1880. Reference: RGZ 1, 247, 252. On the history of the judgment dvaulont.de
  5. ↑ Walter von Andrian: Increased danger from balises instead of Signum magnets in the track? In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 1 . Minirex, 2007, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 45 .
  6. ↑ Vignesh Radhakrishnan: 27.581 Indians died in railway accidents in 2014 . In: Hindustan Times v. 3rd August 2015.
  7. ↑ Sabine Bode: The forgotten generation. The war children break their silence . 13th edition 2014. ISBN 978-3-608-94797-7 , p. 193.
  8. ^ Example on the occasion of the Newark railway accident : Appelby: The Railway Accident At Newark . In: British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, v. July 2, 1870, p. 15.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Schivelbusch: History of the railway journey. On the industrialization of space and time in the 19th century . Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-596-24414-5 , p. 132.
  10. ↑ Theodor Clemens: Communications from the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Frankfurt a. Paraplegia hysterica disease (reflex neurosis caused by genital irritation) . In: Die Klinik 2 (1850), p. 545 f.
  11. ^ Walter von Andrian: Accident Investigation Center in the Crisis . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 7 . Minirex, 2014, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 332 .
  12. ↑ See for example: Merely: Railway Accidents at Work, pp. 86f.
  13. ^ Huntley, p. 24.
  14. ↑ Schneider u. a., p. 10 f.
  15. ↑ Compare:
    Germany: Homepage of the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Office ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Austria: Homepage of the Federal Security Investigation Board - Rail . Switzerland: Homepage of the Swiss Accident Investigation Center (SAUST) ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eisenbahn-unfalluntersprüfung.de

     @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sust.admin.ch
  16. ↑ Germany: Investigation reports from the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Office.
    Austria: Completed investigations by the Federal Railways Safety     Investigation Board .
    Switzerland: Reports on events ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the Swiss Accident Investigation Board (SUST), railways and ships. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sust.admin.ch
  17. ↑ Germany: Annual reports of the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Office.
    Austria: the Federal Security Investigation Board.
    Switzerland: Annual reports ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2013 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the Swiss Accident Investigation Board (SUST), railways and ships. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sust.admin.ch
  18. ↑ Semmens, p. 45.
  19. ^ Edgar A. Haine: Railroad Wrecks . 1993. ISBN 0-8453-4844-2 . P. 175.
  20. ^ NN: China railway disaster . In: The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser , August 22, 1933.
  21. ↑ Semmens, p. 147.
  22. ↑ Semmens, p. 115.
  23. ^ Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 62.
  24. ^ Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 56.
  25. ^ NN: Mine blows up train in China, 100 killed . In: Eugene Register-Guard , September 16, 1948.
  26. ↑ Semmens, p. 44 (without further details).
  27. ↑ Semmens, p. 124.
  28. ↑ Semmens, p. 60.
  29. ^ Richard Meier: collisions despite train control . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 6/2013 . Minirex, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 275 .
  30. ^ For example, the Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure , Alexander Dobrindt , in a press conference after the Bad Aibling railway accident , see aib-kur.de (accessed on February 17, 2016); Regina Kerner: Trains collide head-on . In: Frankfurter Rundschau v. July 13, 2016, p. 40; Anette Ramelsberger: "It's not that easy for me" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of November 11, 2016, p. 10 (report on the first day of the criminal trial against the dispatcher from Bad Aibling).
  31. ^ Dpa : Serious train accident in India . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , May 27, 2014, p. 39; dpa: The number of victims after Zugünglück rises to 25 . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , 28./29. May 2014, p. 39.
  32. ^ Fatigue of Railway Axles: A Classic Problem Revisited . In: M. Fuentes, M. Elices, A. Martín-Meizoso, J.-M. Martínez-Esnaola (Ed.): Fracture Mechanics: Applications and Challenges = ESIS Publication 26. Amsterdam 2000, p. 174.
  33. ↑ Meyer, p. 7.
  34. ↑ Meyer, p. 8f.
  35. ^ Huntley: Railways , pp. 23 ff.
  36. ^ Huntley: Railways , p. 24.
  37. ^ Huntley: Railways , p. 23.
  38. ^ Huntley: Railways , p. 23.
  39. ^ Julien Censier: La section centrale cinematografique de la Societé Nationale des Chemins de Fer / The film department of the French State Railways (SNCF) . In: The European Railway Movie . Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, pp. 18-21 (19, 21); Hellmut Lütz: The film work of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: The European Railway Movie. Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, pp. 14ff (15); Mario Pellegrino: L'attivita cinematografica delle ferrovie italiane / The film work of the Italian state railways . In: The European Railway Movie. Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, pp. 25-29 (26, 28); D. Potter: The British Railways Board Films Service / The British Railways Board Films Service . In: The European Railway Movie. Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, pp. 21-25 (22, 24).
  40. ^ Ernst Schenker: The Swiss Federal Railroad Film Service . In: The European Railway Movie. Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, p. 30.
  41. ^ A b Film-Studio Walter Leckebusch: Films produced on behalf of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: The European Railway Movie . Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, p. 17.
  42. ↑ The European Railway Movie . Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, p. 38; Film-Studio Walter Leckebusch: Films produced on behalf of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: The European Railway Movie . Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, p. 17.
  43. ↑ The European Railway Movie . Special edition of the German film correspondence. Munich, August 1966, p. 37 f.
  44. ↑ See for example: Merely: Railway Accidents , p. III.
  45. ↑ See for example: Merely: Railway accidents .