Gentofte railway accident

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The railway accident in Gentofte was a rear-end collision , the Sunday, July 11, 1897, the located station of Gentofte in Zealand , Denmark , occurred. 40 people died.

Starting position

One of Elsinore coming fast and a driving ahead passenger train from Holte took advantage of the evening on the Nordbane the same track . The express train was driven by the CS 245 locomotive .

The passenger train carried ten passenger cars with wooden car bodies and was overcrowded and delayed due to the heavy excursion traffic. Even during the previous stop in Lyngby , where a party for the Social Democratic Party had taken place, not everyone who wanted to go had been able to get on. The passenger train stopped in Gentofte on schedule , but delayed, and the express train was supposed to pass through there. Since the passenger train was occupying the track, the entry signal for Gentofte station showed "Stop".

the accident

The engine driver of the following express train overlooked the signal showing "Halt" . He was driving at the speed allowed for the passage through the station when he noticed the passenger train standing on the platform about 70 meters in front of him. He immediately initiated an emergency stop , which had hardly any effect, so that he hit the passenger train while the travelers tried to get on the overcrowded passenger train on the also very full platform in Genthofte. The engine driver and stoker of the express train jumped off before the collision. The last four wagons of the passenger train were completely smashed and the train was pushed 80 meters forward. The locomotive of the express train climbed onto the last two cars, buried them under itself and crushed them. After the locomotive of the express train ran a baggage car , which was obviously very robustly built and remained on the track. The following first and second class passenger car was smashed by the weight of the following train , the third car of the train climbed on and lay on its roof. There were no passengers in the first and second class cars.

consequences

40 people died, 32 immediately, 8 more later in hospital. 132 were also injured, including the poet Sophus Michaëlis and his wife Karin . Panic broke out among the travelers, both on the train and on the platform . In an attempt to get away from the scene of the accident as quickly as possible, the uninjured and slightly injured tore down all the light poles on the platform, so that there was no lighting for the rescue work afterwards.

An emergency train drove from North Station in Copenhagen , about half an hour after the accident had occurred, to the scene and took the road from the barracks in Hellerup still pioneers with. Hussars from the Bernstorff castle guard were called in for the rescue work.

In the subsequent criminal trial the engineer claimed a brake failure of the vacuum brake . He was sentenced to four months in prison .

literature

  • Herman Bang: Terrible accident on the northern runway . Translation from Danish . In: Avtenbladet v. July 12, 1897. Printed in: Herman Bang: Changing Topics / Ten Years - Memories and Incidents . Norderstedt 2011, p. 361ff.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The time of the accident is indicated differently in the reporting with times between 9:40 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. (cf.: Terrible accident on the northern railway , p. 361).
  2. ↑ At that time there were three classes of car in Denmark, so nobody had traveled in the two more expensive, upper classes.
  3. ↑ According to other information, 150 injured (see: Terrible accident on the northern railway ; Kristensen: Gentofteulykken 1897 ).
  4. ↑ The North Station was put into operation in 1897 and demolished in 1921.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DSB CS 245. In: jernbanen.dk. Retrieved August 8, 2016 (Danish).
  2. ↑ Kristensen: Gentofteulykken 1897 .
  3. ↑ Terrible accident on the northern runway , p. 364
  4. ↑ Henriksen: Gentofteulykken 1897 .
  5. ↑ Henriksen: Gentofteulykken - 1897 .
  6. ↑ a b c Bang: Terrible misfortune

Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 12.9 ″  N , 12 ° 32 ′ 29.3 ″  E