Ariyalur railway accident

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In the Ariyalur railway accident on November 23, 1956, the Tuticorin Express (தூத்துக்குடி எக்ஸ்பிரஸ்) derailed at a bridge near Ariyalur , Tamil Nadu , and fell into a river. At least 144 people died.

the accident

Before midnight, several trains had passed the accident site without any problems. After four days of very heavy rainfall, the express train was on its way from Madras (today: Chennai ) to Tuticorin . The Maradaiyar River , which the train had to cross about 270 km from Madras, was flooding . The torrential rain had washed away the abutments of the railway bridge and the embankment in front of the railway bridge. The bridge and the softened railway embankment shifted against each other, whereby the track was discarded. When the express train passed the spot at around 5:30 a.m., it derailed. The locomotive , six passenger cars - four 3rd class cars , one of which was reserved for women, and two 2nd class cars - and a baggage car derailed and fell into the river. The wagon reserved for women was largely buried by the mud at the bottom of the river.

consequences

At least 144 people died, numerous victims drowned and 110 were injured. 60 unidentified bodies were doused with gasoline on the riverbank , cremated on the spot and the remains were buried in a mass grave.

The rescue work could only be carried out by emergency trains coming from the direction of Dalmiapuram and Tiruchirapalli to the accident site, as the route to the north was interrupted due to the flood.

The railway workers who were believed to be guilty were arrested. The then Indian Railways Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri , assumed political responsibility for the accident and resigned.

Further worth knowing

A similar accident occurred with the Weesp railway accident in 1918 in the Netherlands.

literature

  • Virendra Kumar: Committees And Commissions In India. Vol. 12, Concept Publishing Company, 1993, p. 285.
  • NN: Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966): A selfless leader . In: The Hindu v. June 30, 2003.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The exact site of the accident could not be identified with the information available. A river named "Maradaiyar", which the sources indicate, is nowhere proven. The coordinates therefore refer to Ariyalur Junction station .
  2. ↑ The number of fatalities is given differently in the individual sources: NN: Ariyalur railway accident : 250; Kumar: 154; schienenweg.at: 150; NN: Lal Bahadur Shastri : 144; NN: Ariyalur train disaster : 128 (the latter number, however, names the dead recovered immediately after the accident and does not include those who were initially injured and those who died later).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kumar.
  2. ^ NN: Railway accident at Ariyalur .
  3. ^ NN: Railway accident at Ariyalur .
  4. ^ NN: Ariyalur train disaster ; NN: Ariyalur railway accident .
  5. ^ NN: Railway accident at Ariyalur .
  6. ^ NN: Ariyalur train disaster .
  7. ↑ NN: Lal Bahadur Shastri .


Coordinates: 11 ° 8 ′ 13.3 "  N , 79 ° 4 ′ 33"  E