Terra Cotta rail accident

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The Terra Cotta , Washington, DC , railroad accident was a rear-end collision on December 30, 1906 due to poor visibility, a run-over "stop" signal, and overtired staff. 53 deaths were the result.

Starting position

The breakpoint Terra Cotta lay on the outskirts of Washington, DC, at the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , near the present-day subway station Fort Totten of the Washington Metro . At the time, the breakpoint was quite isolated and only served the employees of the Potomac Terra Cotta Company to get on and off. The route was secured with a route block. The block section Terra Cotta was by a signal back to the block section Takoma Park hedged. However, from 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., Takoma Park station was unmanned . The signal was then switched off and the Takoma Park block section connected to the preceding Silver Spring block section to form a single block section.

A passenger train from Frederick , Maryland , arrived at Terra Cotta station with 200 passengers and about 15 minutes late , and stopped there on schedule. The train consisted of the locomotive and three attached wooden passenger coaches .

This was followed on the route by a train with six empty wagons pulled by a heavy locomotive. Their engine driver had been on duty continuously for 33 hours and had not slept through the night for 57 hours. It was very foggy that evening .

the accident

The signal that regulated the entrance to the Takoma Park block section at the end of the Silver Spring block section showed "Drive free" for the empty train, the signal that secured the "Terra Cotta" block section against the Takoma Park block section , on the other hand , showed "Stop ". The empty train drove past it anyway. The engine driver later testified that he had reduced the speed but did not see the signal. In this situation, he should have stopped according to the regulations, but continued to drive at undiminished speed because he assumed that the two block sections were already connected and the signal "Drive free" at the entrance to the block section Takoma Park gave him free travel to the block section Terra Cotta grant. The employees of the Takoma Park train station immediately telegraphed the incident to their colleagues at the Terra Cotta stop , but this was no longer effective.

At 6:31 p.m., when the passenger train was just starting to leave the Terra Cotta stop , the empty train drove unchecked into the wooden wagons from behind at about 100 km / h. The heavy locomotive, which itself remained almost undamaged, split one car so that one half remained on the left and the other half on the right of the track and splintered the rest. The force of the impact was so strong that parts of the vehicle and corpses were thrown within a radius of more than 400 meters.

Since the Terra Cotta stop was remote, it took a while for first aid to come from Brookland, 1.5 km away, and almost an hour for a relief train to arrive from Washington, which drove the injured to Washington after another hour.

consequences

The staff of the empty train were acquitted in a criminal case , but the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) accused them of negligence . But she also criticized the railway company for the conditions under which the railway workers had to work and should guarantee safety. The ICC also prohibited the use of wooden passenger coaches in the future.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haine, pp. 70ff.
  2. ↑ NN: Sped by Red Lights (links).
  3. ↑ Deadly 1906 Washington DC Train Wreck (web links).
  4. ^ The Sun (New York) v. December 31, 1906 .
  5. ↑ Deadly 1906 Washington DC Train Wreck (web links).
  6. ↑ NN: Sped by Red Lights (links).

Coordinates: 38 ° 56 '59.2 "  N , 77 ° 0' 4.9"  W.