Peraliya railway accident

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Location of the accident

The Peraliya railway accident occurred on December 26, 2004 in the southern province on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka . The tsunami triggered by the seaquake in the Indian Ocean washed over the tracks and tore a train off the rails . Because of the intercontinental devastation caused by the tsunami with hundreds of thousands of dead, the incident received little independent attention, although with well over 1000 victims it is probably the worst railway accident in history.

Starting position

The crashed express train No. 50, Samudra Devi ( de .: Queen of the Sea ), of the Sri Lanka Railways connects Vavuniya in the north of the island with Matara at the southern tip. The main stopovers on the route are the capital Colombo and the coastal city of Galle . The journey runs over long distances along the Sri Lankan west coast and is one of the most popular tourist connections. On that day, the train was unplanned by a more powerful diesel locomotive of the type M2 instead of the intended M7.

Without stopping went through the Queen of the Sea at 09:20 the station of Kahawa . 4.6 kilometers behind Kahawa, at signal post 581 in the fishing village of Peraliya, shortly before the next stop in Hikkaduwa and almost 20 kilometers before Galle, a signal “await stop” showed . The engine driver slowed down before he stopped the train at the immediately following signal post 582 because the signal showed "Stop". Nobody on the train knew why. Nobody had heard of the seaquake off Sumatra and the tsunami approaching Sri Lanka.

the accident

One of the wagons

The Queen of the Sea stood on level ground, barely a meter above sea ​​level , about 170 meters from the coast . The first wave of the tsunami was about two meters high, washed over the coastal strip a good two minutes later, tore houses with it and hit the train on the right side below the windows. The water rose a good three feet in the wagons, but then slowly sank again. The force of the water tore the second passenger car from the tracks and carried it ten meters inland. However, he stayed upright. The train attendants reacted quickly and helped the occupants to transfer to other still intact wagons. In the meantime, many travelers tried to climb onto the roofs of cars or closed the windows so that more water would not run into them. Numerous residents ran in a panic on the tracks and jumped on the vehicles in order to bring themselves to supposed safety at a greater height. It is believed that no passengers were seriously harmed in this first wave. The train driver agreed with his employees to couple the remaining wagons and continue driving as soon as possible.

About 15 minutes later the second, larger wave was approaching the train. At a height of six to seven meters, it did not meet any significant resistance in the area that had already been cleared by the first wave, poured several kilometers inland and carried the train with it. The water masses washed the 30-ton wagons up to 100 meters inland through houses and palm groves. Even the locomotive, weighing 80 tons, was carried 50 meters away. Two of the wagons were swept into the sea by the returning water.

consequences

Victim

Far more than 1,000 people - the number is called 1,700 - died. The exact number of victims cannot be determined because the actual number of passengers who were on the train is unknown. When it left Colombo, there were an estimated 1,500 people on the train; after the intermediate stops with getting on and off it could have been just under 1,900. What is certain is that only 150 people were rescued or were able to get themselves to safety.

Most of the victims drowned in the wagons, from which they could not escape in time when the water rises. Others suffered fatal broken bones and internal injuries when the wagons were torn inland . Numerous victims were also trapped under overturning cars because they had sought protection from the second wave behind them. In addition to local victims from Sri Lanka, the dead also included some tourists from England , Sweden and Israel . An unknown number of bodies were washed out to sea and never recovered. In many cases it was no longer possible to identify the victims.

Rescue operations

The regional police were initially on-site helpers. Rescue measures were hardly possible because the device was missing. The helpers looked for victims with their bare hands and initial medical care could hardly be provided. Rescue workers had great problems even getting to the scene of the accident, since the superstructure and the rest of the infrastructure in the coastal area were badly damaged or destroyed. An excavator that happened to be in the area was the only clearing device for almost three days.

reconstruction

The rescue of the victims and the train dragged on for several weeks and was combined with the reconstruction of the line. This happened extremely quickly. Over a length of 150 kilometers, almost all bridges, train stations and embankments were destroyed and the tracks and signal systems torn away or buried under a high, hard layer of dried-up mud.

Despite a shortage of materials and money, the state railroad made the route ready to drive in just 57 days without external help. However, disputes arose because many regions of the island state affected by the tsunami accused the government of promoting the reconstruction of the route as a prestige project, while at the same time neglecting the reconstruction of villages .

The locomotive and six wagons of the train involved in the accident could be repaired and put back into operation. Less than a year after the accident, three affected wagons were still on a siding in Peraliya station. Around 300 domestic and foreign tourists came there every day to visit them.

Commemoration

For the first anniversary, on December 26, 2005, a large commemoration ceremony took place at the scene of the accident, attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake , among others . For this, the line was closed for two hours and trains were diverted.

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 6 ° 10 ′ 8 ″  N , 80 ° 5 ′ 27 ″  E