Balta railway accident
In the railway accident in Balta , Russian Empire , derailed on October 10th July. / October 22, 1875 greg. A train caught fire between the Balta and Birsula stations . 70 people died.
Starting position
At the scene of the accident, the Odessa Railway crossed a deep valley cut on an approximately 100-meter-long and up to 30-meter-high dam , which had a water passage with a diameter of approximately 4 meters at the deepest point . Track construction work took place in the area of the dam , rails were replaced.
On the route wrong unscheduled a mixed train the Army with 26 cars. He carried both recruits and oil . Visibility was poor because of a snow storm.
the accident
The construction site had not been notified of this additional train, so the removed track sections had not yet been replaced when the train approached. The engine driver overlooked the signal that was supposed to prevent entry into the construction site and drove into the gap in the rails. The train derailed and fell completely down the embankment. The rubble caught fire, a fire that could not be extinguished for five days because the opening in the embankment looked like a chimney .
consequences
70 people died and 120 were injured.
literature
- Bernhard Püschel: Historical railway disasters. A chronicle of accidents from 1840 to 1926 . Freiburg 1977. ISBN 3-88255-838-5
Remarks
- ↑ Püschel, p. 28, names January 1876 as the time of the event. The exact date used here comes from the Russian Wikipedia ( Список крушений поездов ).