Shitan Railway Accident

In the railway accident Shitan on the night of breaking 16th January 1937 in a moving train of the Kowloon-Canton Railway near the train station Shitan ( Chinese  石灘站  /  石滩站 ) at Canton a fire. More than 112 people died.

Starting position

The train was on the Canton – Hong Kong railway from Kowloon in Hong Kong to Canton (today: Guangzhou ). The passenger cars of the train had frames made of steel, which carried wooden superstructures. They were not equipped with an emergency brake or an emergency signal. The accident occurred when the train was about 60 km from Canton near Shitan Station, today in the Shitan Township of Zengcheng District in Guangzhou.

the accident

Sulphurous acid exploded in a third class car , according to other information smuggled explosives or vibrations of the explosives in the suitcase of the passengers or children's toys made of celluloid caught fire. The explosion led to fire in the last three cars on the train, which were heavily occupied with a total of 150 passengers . Most of the travelers managed to escape from the front of the three cars into the cars in front of them. The travelers were trapped in the other two cars. The engine driver initially noticed nothing of the fire and drove on at cruising speed for over 20 km, which further fueled the fire. Only then did he notice the fire and stop the train. The three cars burned down to the steel frame.

consequences

112 people died and at least 40 were also injured. Many were burned, suffocated from smoke gases or were trampled in the car by refugees. Others died or were injured jumping off the moving train. The rescue work turned out to be difficult because the dead and injured were partly along the more than 20 km that the train had traveled while burning.

Remarks

1. ↑ Semmens names Sheklung as the scene of the accident. The actual scene of the accident is between the train station (stop) Shilijiao ( 石 瀝 滘 站  /  石 沥 滘 站 , Shílìjiào Zhàn , Jyutping Sek ⁶ lik ⁶ gaau ³ Zaam ¹ ) and Shitan ( 石灘 站  /  石滩 站 , Shítān Zhàn , Jyutping Sek ⁶ taan ⁶ Zaam ¹ ) in today's Zengcheng district of Guangzhou (Canton). Due to the lack of a previously official standard transcription for the Chinese script , Latinized information on places and names of Chinese names and designations are historically inconsistent.

literature

• Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .
• Ernest Chi-wah CHAN ( CHEN , Zhihua), Kin-sheung LEE ( LI , Jianxin): 100 years of Hong Kong railway history. Chunghwa Book Co. (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2012. ISBN 978-988-81810-9-4 (Chinese) - 陳志華, 李健信: 香港 鐵路 100 年.中華書局 (香港) 出版 有限公司, 香港 二 〇一 二年 Online in: books.google.de, accessed on February 2, 2019.

Web links

• NN: Ghastly Railway tragedy . In: The Straits Times v. January 18, 1937, p. 11.
• NN: 100 persons perish in Chinese train disaster . In: Ottawa Citizen v. January 18, 1937.

Individual evidence

1. ^ NN: Ghastly Railway tragedy .
2. ↑ Chan et al. Chen, p. 25.
3. ↑ Semmens, p. 92.
4. ↑ NN: 100 people .
5. ↑ NN: 100 people .
6. ^ NN: Ghastly Railway tragedy .
7. ↑ Accident caused by shocking explosives: (Chinese) 100 years of Hong Kong railway history - 香港 鐵路 100 年, “ ... 事件 轟動一時 ， 事後 查明 肇事 原因 是 乘客 乘客 夾帶 的 易燃 物品 受 震 引起 爆炸。 ”, p. 25 Online at: books.google.de, accessed on February 2, 2019
8. ↑ Semmens, p. 92.
9. ^ NN: Ghastly Railway tragedy .
10. ↑ NN: 100 people .
11. ↑ Semmens, p. 92; NN: 100 persons and NN: Ghastly Railway tragedy , name the number of 50 injured.
12. ↑ NN: 100 people .