Sunshine Railway Accident
The railway accident at Sunshine was a rear-end collision in the station of Sunshine , a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria , Australia , who is on the evening of Easter Monday , April 20, 1908 occurred. 44 dead and more than 400 injured were the result.
Starting position
The Sunshine Station is a separation station of the Victorian Railways , after coming out of the station at the time Melbourne Flinders Street coming and after Bendigo leading track a route to Ballarat branched off. The line coming from Bendigo ran absolutely straight into the station 5 km before the Sunshine station.
The slightly delayed train from Ballarat had arrived in Sunshine shortly after 10 p.m. Due to the Easter weekend, it was very busy with travelers , was pulled by two steam locomotives and was overly long, so that initially only the travelers could get out of the front cars and then he moved forward to the platform to let the travelers of the rear cars get off as well.
Course of events
While the train was moving forward, the train coming from Bendigo, also pulled by two locomotives , approached the end of the train. Most of the dead were on the train from Ballarat, while the two locomotives of the train from Bendigo protected it from major damage. The train attendant in the end car of the Ballarat train only survived because he was standing on the platform at the time of the impact and signaling to the train driver that the train was being pulled forward. Another reason why the death toll was so high was that the lighting on the platform at Sunshine Station was very inadequate and it took more than two hours for a medical train to arrive.
root cause
There are two versions of the cause of the accident: The driver of the leading locomotive on the train from Bendigo claimed that the Westinghouse brake had failed when he braked after the distant signal , which announced a main signal that required a “stop” . He had already been on duty for 12½ hours when the accident occurred. In subsequent criminal proceedings , the presiding judge at the conclusion was that the engineer intentionally did not reduce the speed by distant signal because he had anticipated that the main and entry signal in the station Sunshine would be set to "free ride" until he reached. When he then perceived the main signal that required him to “stop”, the braking distance was no longer sufficient to prevent the accident. But since there was nothing in the whole process against the train driver's exemplary service attitude, the judge was unsure and recommended the jury to a decision on acquittal . The jury agreed.
literature
- Tom Rigg: Sunshine Railway Disaster: A Railwayman's Perspective . Ed .: Sunshine and District Historical Society 2008.
Coordinates: 37 ° 47 ′ 16.5 ″ S , 144 ° 49 ′ 57.3 ″ E