Railway accident in the Vierzy tunnel
The railway accident in the Vierzy tunnel was caused by the partial collapse of the structure on June 16, 1972, which two diesel railcars were just passing through. 108 dead and 87 (according to other sources 111) injured were the result.
Starting position
The Tunnel of Vierzy in Aisne , France , pointed to structural defects. From from brick bricks or parts were repeatedly broken out of it brick vault. So the SNCF had decided to repair the tunnel from spring 1972 by lining it inside with 7 cm thick concrete , which was done in sections.
The two railcars No. 2841 from Paris Gare du Nord to Laon and No. 7844 in the opposite direction met in the tunnel on what was then a double-track section .
the accident
At around 8:55 p.m. the first railcar crashed into an obstacle, followed by the second shortly afterwards. The vault of the tunnel collapsed and buried the two vehicles . The sequence of these events could not be clearly reconstructed afterwards. There are two hypotheses about the causes of the collapse :
- The vibrations caused by the two diesel railcars resulted in an oscillation that corresponded to the natural oscillation of the ailing ceiling vault and caused it to collapse.
- As a result of the renovation work in the tunnel, something had been lying on the tracks, derailed the first railcar , the second drove into the first, and the vibration of the collision caused the vault to collapse.
The accident happened in an area of the tunnel that had not yet been rehabilitated. It was noticeable, however, that the most damaged part of the tunnel vault was 6.5 m south of the point up to which the rubble from the accident had spread, i.e. this point was not affected by the accident. The investigative commission came to the conclusion that the removal of defective bricks during the renovation had taken place over too long a stretch without the defective areas having already been compensated by concrete, which destabilized the vault to such an extent that it could collapse.
consequences
108 people died and 111 were injured. This was the third worst railway accident in the history of the railway in France (see: Railway accident of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and railway accident of Lagny ). The rescue operations were coordinated by the prefect of the Aisne department .
The tunnel was only rebuilt on a single track . The same thing happened with a second identical tunnel on the route.
In memory of the accident, two memorials were erected: one above the south-west portal of the tunnel, the other at the Saint-Léger church in Soissons .
Individual evidence
- ^ Stenographic report (PDF; 2.4 MB) of the French National Assembly , parliamentary debate of May 3, 1973, p. 970.
- ^ Report of the French National Assembly: Sécurité des tunnels routiers et ferroviaires français from 2000.
- ↑ NN: Les accidents de chemin de fer en France ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Le Figaro v. October 15, 2007.
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 57.2 " N , 3 ° 17 ′ 38.1" E