Tournon-sur-Rhône railway accident
The railway accident at Tournon-sur-Rhône was the collision of a freight train with a diesel multiple unit 10 km north of Tournon-sur-Rhône (at that time still without the name “sur-Rhône”), France , on July 3, 1954. 33 people died.
Starting position
On the double-track line , something was repaired on one track in the morning of the day , so that only the other track was available for trips in both directions. When the repair was finished, double-track operation was resumed.
A freight train ran in one direction. In the opposite direction, the railcar from Lyon to Nîmes was on its way, which in addition to the motorized vehicle had two sidecars .
the accident
Instead of letting the trains run as planned on both directional tracks, a switch keeper continued the operation he was used to from the morning, so that both trains ran towards each other on the same track and collided. The leading vehicle of the railcar and the first sidecar were badly damaged.
literature
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .