Nozaki railway accident
 
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In the railway accident at Nozaki ( Japanese 箒 川 鉄 橋 列車 転 落 事故 , Hōki-gawa tekkyō ressha tenraku jiko , dt. "Train crash from the iron bridge over the Hōki River") a train crashed on October 7, 1899 in Japan between the Yaita stations ( 矢 板 駅 ), route km 138.4, and Nozaki ( 野 崎 駅 ), route km 143.2, in the area of the municipality of Ōtawara , Tochigi prefecture , into the river Hōki ( 箒 川 ). The railway accident , in which 20 people died, is considered to be the worst railway accident of the Meiji period .
Starting position
Initially that was Tōhoku main line , a private company , which by the private railway company Nippon Railway was operated. The line from Ueno to Ōmiya was opened on July 28, 1883 and subsequently expanded to the north, so that in 1886 the sections to Utsunomiya and Nasu could also be opened. The entire main line was the opening of the station in Aomori completed on September 1, 1891st
the accident
A typhoon formed on the morning of the day of the accident and was heading for the main Japanese island of Honshū . At 11:00 a.m., train 345 left Ueno Station for Fukushima . The train passed the train coming from the opposite direction and not affected by the typhoon and reached Utsunomiya 50 minutes late. Since at this time in Utsunomiya the predicted wind speed was only nine meters per second (i.e. wind force 5 on the Beaufort scale ), train 345 continued. The statement of the accompanying Schaffner According the train left the Yaita Station about 16:40 and drove to the iron bridge over the River Hoki to between Yaita and Nozaki.
Train 345 was a mixed train of two locomotives , seven passenger cars and 11 freight cars . When the train crossed the bridge at around 5 p.m., it was hit by a violent gust of wind from the northwest on the left side of the train. The typhoon pushed against the unprotected train across the bridge with such force that eight cars overturned to one side and fell from the bridge into the river. On that day, the typhoon increased the water level of the river by one meter. Although the engine driver braked immediately, the rest of the train only came to a halt 140 m further.
The following cars fell into the river:
- Baggage car no.120 - fell into the river on the ninth bridge pillar and was badly damaged
- ordinary brake van No. 28 - was also badly damaged
- Third class passenger car No. 179 - the roof was demolished and the remaining structure was spilled in the river bed after the crash
- Third class passenger car No. 249 - fell into the river on the eighth bridge pillar, was almost completely destroyed except for the roof and drifted 27 m further downstream
- First class passenger car No. 3 - fell into the river between the seventh and eighth bridge piers, was almost completely destroyed except for the roof and drifted 18 m further downstream
- Second class passenger car No. 17 - smashed on a sandbank near bridge piers seven
- Third class passenger car No. 275 - crashed into the river shortly before bridge pillar seven and was badly damaged
- Ordinary brake and baggage car No. 107 - crashed onto passenger car No. 275 and was badly damaged.
20 people died and 45 others were injured.
consequences
At a meeting on October 16, the management of Nippon Tetsudō decided to pay the relatives of those who were killed in the train accident 500 yen and the relatives of the injured up to 300 yen. For example, Tashiro Zenkichi, who was seriously injured in the train accident and was released from the hospital in Utsunomiya after 40 days , was awarded a total of 105 yen, 70 + 35 yen, on behalf of Chairman Soga Sukenori and the railway employees.
But it did not stop. Among the relatives of the victims was the millionaire and MP Kanno Zen'uemon from Fukushima, who lost his 25-year-old son as a result of the accident. He sued the railway company in court with the two main arguments that in such weather and due to construction defects on the railway bridge, railway traffic should have been stopped. Kanno was then questioned before the Shūgiin . The written report of this survey was handed over on January 8 of the following year by the Minister of Communications and Transport Akimasa Yoshikawa to Kenkichi Kataoka (1844–1903), the chairman of the lower house, and discussed in a plenary session. With the results of this discussion, Kanno turned to the Tokyo District Court ( 東京 地方 裁判 所 ) and asked for compensation of 30,000 yen in a civil lawsuit. On July 7th, the court followed Kano's petition and sentenced the Nippon Tetsudō to pay compensation for pain and suffering. In the pronouncement of the verdict, the court saw the station master's negligence as proven. It also recommended reducing the speed of trains in thunderstorms.
On September 14, the Nippon Tetsudō in Tokyo appealed against the judgment. It took four years for the appeal to be judged. During this time, 36 other relatives finally joined the process. On December 10, 1904, the court of appeal ruled in the exact opposite sense for the Nippon Tetsudō. Another appeal before the court of appeal was finally rejected on February 28, 1906, whereby Kanno lost the trial and had to bear the costs. Kanno reached an out-of-court settlement with the Nippon Tetsudō in the end, but the details are not known.
A short time later, on March 31, 1906, the Railway Nationalization Act came into force. The Nippon Tetsudō and the Gan'etsu Tetsudō ( 岩 越 鉄 道 ) became the property of the state.
literature
- Masao Saito: Japanese Railway Safety and Technology of the Day . In: Japan Railway and Transport Review. 33 (December 2002), pp. 4-13 (6). (PDF file; 2.41 MB)
Remarks
- ↑ The Nasu station was renamed on May 1, 1891 in Nishi-Nasuno ( 西 那 須 野 駅 ).
- ^ The first locomotive and tractor was a Beyer-Peacock steam locomotive with a tender ; the second locomotive was also a steam locomotive made in England, plus three empty, seven loaded freight cars and a brake car.
- ↑ Information according to the history of the development of the Nippon Tetsudō ( 日本 鉄 道 株式会社 沿革 史 ). Other sources cite 19 dead and 39 injured.
Individual evidence
- ↑ houki.htm 100 年 の 時 を 越 え て 箒 川 鉄 橋 の 慰 霊 碑 ( 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. , Mainichi Shimbun, Japanese
Coordinates: 36 ° 50 ′ 10.3 " N , 139 ° 57 ′ 5.4" E