Tadakuma Railway Accident
In the railway accident in Tadakuma ( Japanese 住友 忠 隈 炭 砿 人 車 暴走 事故 , Sumitomo Tadakuma tankō jinsha bōsō jiko ) on April 16, 1936, the cable of a funicular in Tadakuma , Kyushu , Japan broke . 52 people died.
Starting position
The miners were transported to a mine of the Sumitomo Group by a non-public, in-house funicular railway to their place of work. This funicular went up a ramp with a 9% gradient . The railroad cars were pulled with a rope. As a safety measure in the event of a rope break, the vehicles were equipped with emergency brakes . The brakes had been checked and found to be functional two weeks before the accident.
the accident
On April 16, 1936, the hauling rope broke when a train with nine cars was about in the middle of the ramp. The train ran down a slope. The emergency brakes failed or proved to be too weak. Only a few workers managed to get out. The train was smashed on the bottom of the pit .
consequences
52 people died, 28 were also injured and two people went missing (!).
literature
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .
Remarks
- ↑ Due to a lack of information in the source, "Tadakuma" could not be clearly located. It is believed to be the Sumitomo coal mine in Tadakuma ( 住友 忠 隈 炭 鉱 ) in the city of Honami (now part of Iizuka ), Kaho-gun County in Fukuoka Prefecture ( 福岡 県 嘉 穂 郡 穂 波 町 忠 隈 )
Individual evidence
- ↑ 世界 に 名 を 残 す 日本 の 鉄 道 事故 . Retrieved November 30, 2016 (Japanese, translation from Railway Disasters of the World).
- ↑ Semmens, p. 91.
- ↑ Semmens, p. 91.
- ↑ Semmens, p. 91.