Mahbubnagar railway accident

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In the railway accident at Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh , India , on September 2, 1956, a train crashed because a bridge collapsed. 117 people were killed.

Starting position

The train No. 565. Indian State Railways of Secunderabad after Dronachalam (now Dhone ) consisted of a steam locomotive , its Tender and nine cars. He was on a railway line in meter gauge the Central Railway road that used to Nizam State Railways had heard and had at Mahbubnagar on the 1923 built, about 7 m long steel truss bridge no. 229 going to a stream called Pasani Kunta Vagu crossed . The creek had swelled severely from heavy monsoon rains and turned into a torrent. The bridge system lacked sufficient flood ditches so that all of the water had to flow away through the one central flow. A heavy monsoon rain had already damaged the bridge on August 1, 1956, but it was subsequently repaired. A bridge attendant, who had to supervise several bridges, checked the bridge twice during the night without noticing anything special.

the accident

In the hour immediately before the accident, more than 5 cm of rain had fallen. As a result, the water pushed through the drain with force, flooding the upper edge of the rails 20–30 centimeters, undermining the piers of the bridge and damaging the abutments on both sides.

When the train hit the bridge at around 12:40 a.m., it gave way and collapsed. The locomotive and its tender came to rest on the opposite bank . The following two third- class passenger cars, each with 70 seats, which were smashed between the mass of the following train and the locomotive, fell into the water. Nobody survived in the first car. The current was so strong that a number of corpses were washed into a reservoir several kilometers downstream . The front part of the following third car, 1st and 2nd class, was also badly damaged and protruded over the river in a position where it was in danger of falling.

consequences

117 people were killed.

The investigation report came to the conclusion that the railway was to blame for the accident: On the one hand, it was inappropriate to have two endangered bridges guarded by just one employee, and on the other hand, the responsible engineers were blamed. Due to the catchment area of the brook that flowed through under the bridge and the amount of possible precipitation during the monsoon season, additional flows would have to be built under the railway line.

The then Indian Railways Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri , who went to the scene of the accident immediately, wanted to take political responsibility for the accident and offered the Prime Minister , Jawaharlal Nehru , his resignation. But this refused. It was only when the Ariyalur railway accident occurred about three months later and Shastri again offered to resign that he was accepted.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Only one source (NN: Miscellaneous ) gives this name, which cannot be proven anywhere else.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NN: Train accident probe .
  2. ^ Wiebe: The Mahbubnagar Railroad Accident .
  3. ^ Railway Board (Ed.): The Commission of Inquiry , p. 213.
  4. ^ Railway Board (Ed.): The Commission of Inquiry , p. 212.
  5. ^ Wiebe: The Mahbubnagar Railroad Accident .
  6. ^ Railway Board (Ed.): The Commission of Inquiry , p. 212.
  7. ^ Wiebe: The Mahbubnagar Railroad Accident .
  8. ^ NN: Miscellaneous .
  9. ^ Wiebe: The Mahbubnagar Railroad Accident .
  10. ^ Railway Board (Ed.): The Commission of Inquiry , p. 213.
  11. ↑ NN: Lal Bahadur Shastri. "I Am Responsible" ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 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.freeindia.org


Coordinates: 16 ° 45 ′ 2.3 ″  N , 78 ° 4 ′ 10 ″  E