The largest railway accidents in Russia and the USSR. train accident near Ufa (1989)

The most amazing train crashes that happened in different corners of our planet:

1. The train flew through the veranda after its brakes failed.

Gare Montparnasse, one of the six largest railway terminals in Paris, became infamous on October 22, 1895 due to the derailment of the Granville-Paris Express, which ran over a persistent beam. The locomotive drove along the entire station, which was 30 meters long, broke through a wall 60 centimeters thick, flew out of the building through the veranda and fell nose-first onto de Rennes Street, which was 10 meters below the veranda. Two of the 131 passengers, as well as a fireman and two conductors, were injured. The only casualty of this crash was a woman who was below on the street at the time of the crash and who was killed by a falling piece of wall. The accident was caused by Westinghouse brakes that did not work, and also by the fault of the driver, who wanted to catch up on the time he was late for. The conductor was fined 25 francs, and the driver was fined 50 francs.

2. Deadliest crash ever high speed train


The train crash in the German village of Eschede was the deadliest disaster involving a high-speed train. It happened on June 3, 1998 near the village of Eschede in the Celle region, part of Lower Saxony, Germany. The crash killed 101 people and injured 88 people. This disaster surpassed the Dahlerau train crash in 1971 in death toll and became the deadliest accident in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The cause of the crash was one small crack in one wheel, which finally failed, causing the train to derail at a rail switch. The severe destruction of the train was caused by a collision with a road bridge, which occurred after the train derailed.

3. The most fatal train accident in the world, which occurred because the train was hit by a tsunami


The 2004 Sri Lanka train crash caused by the tsunami was the deadliest train accident in history. The crash occurred when a tsunami destroyed an overcrowded passenger train on the coastal railway lines of Sri Lanka. Tsunami generated by an earthquake in Indian Ocean 2004, carried away the most a large number of lives throughout history railway. More than 1,700 people died, many more than in the previous train accident.

The train, known as the Queen of the Sea Line, was a regular passenger train traveling between the cities of Colombo and Galle. On Sunday 26 December 2004, it left Colombo at approximately 6:55 am, carrying approximately 1,000-1,500 paying passengers and an unknown number of stowaways.

At 9:30 a.m. the beach in the village of Peraliya, near Telwatta, was hit by the first huge waves, formed as a result of an earthquake that occurred shortly before off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The train stopped as water rose around it. Hundreds of local residents thought that the train was holding well on the tracks and climbed onto its roof to avoid being washed away by the wave. Others stood next to him, hoping that the train would absorb the shock wave. The wave flooded the carriages and caused panic among passengers. Next, more a big wave lifted the train and brought it down on houses and trees located along the rails, sweeping away everyone who sought salvation behind the train. The eight carriages were so packed with people that it was impossible to open their doors, and they quickly filled with water, in which almost everyone inside gradually drowned as waves rolled in one after another. According to calculations made on the basis of the condition coastline, and also based on the high water mark, the height of the tsunami waves ranged from 7.5 to 9 meters above sea level and from 2 to 3 meters above the level of the train roof.

4. The hijacking of a train and the subsequent disaster of its collision with a house

The theft of cars, trucks or motorcycles is unlikely to surprise anyone, but the hijacking of an entire train is a completely different matter. You don't hear about this every day. The thief was a 20-year-old woman who worked as a cleaner in Stockholm. She stole the keys to the train, then drove it to the end of the tracks at high speed and crashed it into a house after the train derailed and went over the street.

Fortunately, except for the woman, whose name was not disclosed, no one was injured. The disaster happened early in the morning, and there was no one on the train yet. No one was in the house at the time of the collision either.

Note: It was later determined that the train was not hijacked. The cleaning lady accidentally started it while cleaning the cabin and couldn't figure out how to stop it.

5. An unstoppable train caused a bridge to collapse.


The Lewisham railway accident occurred at approximately 6:20 pm on 4 December 1957 on a bypass line at Louisham, London. In thick fog, an electric train bound for Hayes stopped at a signal under a bridge, and the following steam locomotive, bound for Ramsgate, crashed into it. This collision caused the bridge to collapse onto the locomotive. As a result, 90 people died and 109 people were injured and were hospitalized. The bridge had to be completely removed, and it took a full week before the railway line underneath was operational again. The bridge was rebuilt and put into operation only a month later.
After two trials, the locomotive driver was found not guilty of murder charges. The Department of Transport found that he did not slow down after passing two warning lights, so he could not have stopped after the warning signal. Ultimately, the Department of Transportation concluded that an automatic warning system could have prevented the collision.

6. Train collision in India


The Firozabad train derailment occurred in India in 1995 when two trains, the Kalindi express and the Purshottam express, collided near Firozabad. The Purshottam Express hit the Kalindi Express from behind when the latter stopped due to jammed brakes after it hit a cow. At the time of the collision, almost all the people were asleep. About 200 people were killed and about 200 more were injured.

7Train Collision Caused by Betting Races


The caption written by William Middleton for this photo in his book The Interurban Era reads:

“Two trains of the Fonda, Johnstown, & Gloversville Railroad Company were disgraced after their inappropriate competition for a place on railway station in Gloversville, New York."

8The Amazing Train Derailment With The Loss Of Only One Human Life

The tragedy occurred in a peaceful, picturesque place, in the very center of the Lake District.

On a cold, rainy February evening in 2007, the tranquility of a farm near the tiny village of Grayrigg was shattered when the Virgin Pendolino London to Glasgow express, traveling from London to Glasgow, derailed on the West Coast Main Line. (West Coast Main Line). In just a few seconds, eight cars of the Class 390 high-speed electric train derailed, resulting in injuries to 86 passengers and two crew members out of the 105 people who were on the train at the time. This happened because the locomotive, traveling at a speed of approximately 153 kilometers per hour, derailed and dragged the train cars with it, which were scattered along an earthen embankment.

As a result, only one person died - 84-year-old Margaret Peggy Masson, who survived the incident but died later in hospital.

Rail transport, according to the public, is considered the least dangerous. Most passengers would give preference to it, if the issue of travel duration is not considered the main one. Although, according to statistics, injuries during air travel are still lower. Everyone knows that tragic train accidents are possible, but everyone hopes it doesn't happen to them. Meanwhile, the disappointing “primacy” among all passengers belongs to

Railway accidents

Transportation is associated with a high concentration of cargo or passenger traffic. To ensure delivery efficiency, it is necessary to tighten schedules and increase the number of cars in trains. This leads to additional loads on the railway tracks, the track underneath, bearing structures. The wear and tear of trains, locomotives, control and dispatch equipment is increasing. The load on railway management and maintenance personnel is also growing. Everything is taken into account, it seems to be happening in compliance with the standards, but accidents with trains still happen.

Each crash has its own history, causes, consequences. A derailment of a train, resulting in its capsizing, rarely occurs without loss of life. Injuries and injuries cannot be avoided. It's connected with design features carriages, the principles of placing passengers in them, their attitude to the possibility of situations that may pose a threat to life and health. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine how passenger safety can be effectively improved. Derailment of a train and overturning of a carriage are accidents for which it is impossible to prepare. The only correct solution is a set of measures to reduce the risk of their occurrence.

Technical reasons

As it turns out, it’s easier to write it down on paper than to implement it. One of the main reasons is the technical condition of the railway tracks. It is no secret that most of them were laid several decades ago. Since then, speeds and loads have increased. But there is no possibility of changing paths to suit new conditions or laying new ones. This comes with significant costs. IN best case scenario Partial replacement of the blade is carried out in areas with the most pronounced wear.

The same can be said about equipment, which also wears out and inevitably happens. Therefore, train accidents are inevitable, but we must try to prevent them. But how? If the train does not start moving without replacing a worn-out engine part, then it will still run on wheelsets. This approach is partly justified - do not stop large-scale transportation. We have to devote more time to inspections and additional maintenance. But this does not make the cars any newer.

Human factor

Accidents and wrecks for these reasons cannot be predicted. But it's one thing if a passenger train crash is related to objective reasons. Human body- although it is a flexible system, it is not ironclad. Both the dispatcher and the driver can have health problems. Not every medical examination can identify these risks.

Another question is when the cause of the crash is dishonest performance of official duties, negligence, gross violation safety rules. Particularly significant are cases when, during the investigation of the causes of accidents, facts of persons being intoxicated at the workplace are revealed.

How to justify the actions of a driver trying to make up for delays along the way by increasing speed in a dangerous section? And what about the situation when, while putting things in order in the cabin, the cleaning lady was able to accidentally set the locomotive in motion, and at the same time there was not a single specialist on board to stop it?

Races between train drivers for the right to be the first to enter the station and ignoring the prohibitory semaphore signal are the height of cynicism towards passengers. The unpreparedness of train crews to eliminate the consequences of a fire and the frequent lack of equipment to extinguish them can have dire consequences even without the fact of a train crash. The above situations are far from full list Negligent attitude to official duties at transport facilities with an increased risk to life.

Fatal Accidents: Train Derailments

It is difficult to compare the severity of the consequences of disasters if there were human casualties and big number injured passengers. But to understand the danger a railway accident poses, you need to remember at least some of them. Thus, an accident in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 1958 occurred when two freight trains carrying petroleum products in tanks collided. The reason is a semaphore malfunction. There was a fire on a parallel path at that time. The explosion led to the death of more than 60 people.

Rostov region, 1987. Then, in front of the station, he was unable to slow down and then urgently brake the locomotive of the freight train. Safety rules were violated, which resulted in a collision with a passenger train standing near the platform. The result of the crash: more than 100 people died and many more were seriously injured.

Ufa, 1989. A leak in the main pipeline led to an explosion of a cloud of vapor. This happened in close proximity to the tracks along which two passenger trains were passing at the time. The largest disaster in the USSR then claimed the lives of almost 600 people.

Train accidents in dreams

Oddly enough, the human brain, even in the absence of mentions of railway travel, in some cases is capable of reproducing them in the subconscious. Moreover, according to researchers, dreams of train crashes can also be of a warning nature. It is not yet possible to either confirm or deny that such visions can be prophetic in nature. However, it makes sense to at least think about the reasons for their occurrence.

A railroad accident seen in a dream may symbolize the need to be careful and be prepared for any unexpected situations. First of all, according to experts, this concerns financial issues. If in visions a person finds himself in the epicenter of a disaster, but everything turns out well, there are prerequisites for real life get out of a serious situation without significant damage. If it was still not possible to avoid damage, such a dream can warn of frivolity and imprudent actions, which are most likely doomed to failure in advance.

With the development of scientific and technological progress, not only the load on environment, but also the level of danger to humans. Increasing the speed of life requires and increased speeds movement. Horse-drawn carriages were replaced by cars, high-speed trains and jet airliners. News of tragedies on the roads and in the air, and train accidents frighten and terrify. But despite the two-hundred-year history of the development of railway transport, it still remains the safest. Is this so and what is the likelihood of being at the epicenter of a train accident? We’ll talk about it in this article.

Statistics and survey

Statistics are a tricky thing. A variety of indicators can be taken as evaluation criteria: the number of victims per kilometers traveled or per man-hours. Let us present statistical data on the ratio of victims to the number of passengers. In this assessment, the railway is in third place in terms of travel safety. She yields water transport and, paradoxically, aviation. But population surveys stubbornly give completely different figures. Only 15% of respondents believe that they can get into a railway accident. While concerns about road transport expressed by about 50% of respondents. And 85% of respondents are afraid to use the services of modern aviation.

Reasons have no nationality

Two centuries of railway travel show that train accidents have no nationality. It is worth considering separately Act of terrorism, and we will talk about them separately. The causes of tragedies leading to railway accidents and disasters most often include the following:

Dangerous Leaders

When analyzing the largest railway accidents, a combination of several factors attracts attention. And besides, each such tragedy is a unique case, a tragic coincidence of circumstances. But the statistics are merciless: 25% of railway accidents occur as a result of train derailment. The same amount accounts for collisions between railway transport and other vehicles. vehicles(horse-drawn, automobile and even bicycle). Fires, explosions and equipment failure take about 10%, and the rest - human factor and control errors that lead to trains leaving occupied tracks and direct collisions.

The very first accident

As history goes, the first railroad accident occurred on November 8, 1833, in the suburbs of Hightstown (New Jersey, USA). A Camden and Amboy passenger train derailed as a result of a broken axle. By coincidence, the sixth President of the United States of America, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), was traveling on the train. He was among many passengers injured, and two passengers died. An account for the victims of train accidents was opened and continues to this day.

Top world disasters

Throughout the history of the railway there have been many tragic events. We list the three most significant world tragedies by the number of passengers killed.

Peraliya (Sri Lanka). This tragedy, which occurred on December 26, 2004, is considered the deadliest to date. The number of victims is unknown; official sources put the figure at 2 thousand people. The Queen of the Sea train was swept away by a tsunami wave, thirty-ton carriages, two of which were carried into the ocean, and an eighty-ton diesel locomotive was thrown 50 meters. Rescuers reached the train only on the third day. Fifteen hundred passengers miraculously survived.

Al-Ayyat (Egypt). This train accident occurred on February 20, 2002. The train driver did not see the fire breaking out in one carriage, and the fire very quickly engulfed seven carriages overcrowded with passengers. People jumped out of the flaming train as it moved, because it had traveled about 10 kilometers more. According to official data, 380 people died, about a thousand were seriously burned and injured.

Bihar (India). In this case, the cause of the tragedy is love for our smaller brothers. The train driver made a sharp brake to avoid a collision with the animal. As a result, the entire train fell into the river. The tragedy of August 6, 1981 claimed the lives of everyone who was traveling on this train - 800 people.

It's not just passengers who are in danger.

Nishapur (Iran). A train carrying tanks of sulfur, gasoline, fertilizers and cotton derailed.

In addition to firefighters, many onlookers, politicians, and journalists flocked to the village of Khayam, where the train entered on February 18, 2004. And then the cars detonated: the explosion was equal to 180 tons of TNT. About 300 people were killed, up to 500 were injured, and the explosion was heard 70 kilometers from the epicenter.

The most terrible terrorist attack

Terrible railway accidents are the longed-for dream of terrorists. This is how suicide bombers decided to mark the 911 day after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, with four explosions on electric trains in Madrid (Spain). The explosions occurred on March 11, 2004 and claimed the lives of 192 citizens from 17 countries. About two thousand people were injured. No terrorist organization has ever claimed responsibility for these explosions.

The worst disaster in the USSR

There was no such tragedy anywhere else in the territory Soviet Union, nor the CIS countries. And the cause of the train accident near Ufa was an accident on the Siberia-Ural-Volga region hydrocarbon pipeline, which led to the formation of a dense gas-air mixture in the area where trains passed. 18 cars of the Adler-Novosibirsk train then, on June 4, 1989, collided with the same passenger train of 20 cars going in the opposite direction. 1,284 passengers were caught in the epicenter of the tragedy, including almost 400 children. Tragic accident led to the fact that these trains met - one was late technical reasons, and the second one made an emergency stop (dropped off the woman in labor). When they caught up on the Ulyu-Telyak-Osha section of the road, a spark from the wheels led to an explosion of 300 tons of TNT to 12 kilotons. For information, the explosion in Hiroshima was 16 kilotons of TNT. Electric locomotives and 38 cars were simply destroyed. The shock wave threw 11 cars off the tracks. Century-old pines burned like matches. According to official data, in a train accident (1989) 575 passengers died, almost a thousand received injuries of varying severity and burns. Residents of the city of Asha, located 10 kilometers from the explosion, helped rescuers and victims throughout the rescue operation, which lasted almost a week. Although in the city itself, glass in residential buildings was knocked out by the blast wave, and the fire from the fire, which engulfed 250 hectares of forest, was visible from a distance of 100 kilometers.

Death of athletes

This train accident near Ufa claimed the lives of 9 hockey players of the Chelyabinsk Traktor team. These boys, born in 1973, were candidates for the youth team of the Soviet Union and gold medalists of many tournaments. Since 1989, in memory of the fallen champions, an annual hockey tournament has been held in Chelyabinsk, which is one of the most prestigious among youth teams. A memorial was erected at the site of the tragedy (1992), and a monument to the victims was opened in the Novosibirsk carriage depot (2009). And in Russia, the development of railway hospitals in disaster medicine is becoming increasingly widespread. Trains still stop at the site of the tragedy today to honor the memory of all those who died in this terrible disaster.

A year earlier

Exactly one year before this disaster, June 4, 1988, due to non-compliance with transportation rules hazardous substances An explosion occurred at the Arzamas station (Gorky region) at 09.32 am. Three cars with hexogen exploded, which is 118 tons of explosive. The explosion crater was 26 meters in diameter. 151 residential buildings were destroyed, more than 800 families were left homeless. In addition to the completely destroyed roadway (250 meters), damage was caused to 2 hospitals, 49 kindergartens, and 14 schools. 91 people died, including 17 children.

Train accidents in Russia: 2017

January 18. The driver of the car pulled out in front of the train to cross the crossing. Even with emergency braking, it was not possible to avoid a collision. The driver and passenger of the car died.

January 30. A car collided with an electric train in the Moscow region. Three people in the car were killed.

March, 3rd. Amur region - collision truck and a freight train whose cars left the tracks. Two passengers and the driver of the car were killed.

26 March. As a result of a collision between two trains at the Uchalinsky mining and processing plant (Bashkiria), two tanks containing diesel fuel. One person was injured and four died.

April 8. The Moscow-Brest train collided with an electric train near Moscow. Three carriages of an electric train and a train locomotive derailed. 12 passengers out of 50 victims required hospitalization.

9th of September. A KAMAZ and a passenger train collided at a crossing in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. Two people died in hospital, 20 passengers were injured.

Let's sum it up

Tragedies and disasters are inevitable with the development of technological progress. Increasing speeds of movement introduce potential danger into our lives. Everyone has to decide for themselves which transport to choose for transportation. As the floorboard says - what happens, cannot be avoided. Let there be less anxiety in our lives, and let troubles bypass us and the people dear to us. And for this, be a careful passenger and follow the rules that are written to ensure safety. And for drivers and maintenance personnel, the priority tasks should include compliance with the rules for servicing mechanisms and labor safety rules.

Railway transport is recognized not only in Russia as the most in a safe way transport. However, on railways there are terrible disasters, taking away daily human lives. The statistics of railway accidents in the world are not as high as , but between 2014 and 2016 there were 40 serious tragedies. As a result, 100 people died and 1000 were injured.

World disasters involving railway transport 2014–2105

March 20, 2014. In the town of Mersin, Turkey, a passenger train collided with a bus transporting employees from the Tarsus-Mersin industrial facility. The powerful blow literally cut the bus in half. As a result of the tragedy, 9 deaths were reported, and five workers were seriously injured.

9th May. All of Russia celebrates Victory Day, and 13 people died in India. A terrible accident happened on the railway; a train collided with a car. Three people with serious injuries managed to survive.

Death Express

26 of May. Churaid Station, India. The train, which was heading to Grakhpur, for unknown reasons, was traveling on a track where a freight train was located at that time. There was a powerful collision. The tragedy claimed the lives of 40 people. 100 people were taken to different hospitals with serious injuries.

June 6. Northern part of Iran - a passenger train collided with freight train. The train was moving towards Tehran. It carried 340 people, 10 of whom died.

US railroad accident statistics are also disappointing, even when taking into account recent technological advances and high standards security. Here on August 18, 2014, a freight train collision occurred on the Hoxie branch line. The tragedy caused the strongest. The authorities had to evacuate 500 people living directly in the fire zone. The number of dead is two, the number of injured is two.

Tragedies happen, and official data is almost impossible to obtain - only information covered by licensed American media is available. Many dangerous and deadly tragedies happen every day.

Statistics on railway accidents for 2014

Statistics of railway accidents are also kept in Russia in 2014-2015. However, Russian Railways is reluctant to disclose these terrible figures.

By official information Russian Railways the number of accidents with deaths on the railways over a period of 11 months. 2014 is 20 people. The figure is 17.6% higher than for the same reporting period in 2013. Whereas, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 244 people were injured in accidents. As seen average 7 times more.

Conclusion

Rail transport is dangerous. The number of victims is less than the number from road accidents. But accidents on railways happen quite often. In Russia they do not take safety too seriously - disasters occur more often. Terrible tragedies also occur in neighboring Ukraine, where security tasks are also not being fulfilled.

On November 6, 1986, two passenger trains collided at Koristovka station. Several carriages were smashed to pieces. About one and a half hundred people were injured, 44 died. For this date, we have collected together stories about the bloodiest disasters in the history of railways.

Photo: http://www.parovoz.com
2013-11-06 17:15

USSR, 1986. 44 dead, 100 wounded

On November 6, 1986, at the Koristovka station of the Odessa Railway, passenger trains No. 635 Krivoy Rog - Kyiv and No. 38 Kyiv - Donetsk crashed. As a result of the crash, the locomotives of both trains were damaged and several passenger cars were broken. 44 people were killed, 100 people were injured, 27 of them seriously.

By official version, the driver of train No. 635 and his assistant fell asleep at work, ignored the prohibitory signal of the semaphore and collided head-on with train No. 38. During the investigation, they fully admitted their guilt and received 15 and 12 years in prison. In addition, the court ordered to recover from them for material damage 348 thousand 645 rubles in equal shares.

There is another version - the duty officer at the Koristovka station is to blame for the train crashes and deaths. Allegedly, she, knowing that train No. 38 was late, decided to take train No. 635. At the same time, the 38th train caught up with the schedule and entered the station along the same track from the other side. There was no prohibiting signal. After the collision, the station attendant tried to throw herself from the bridge, but she was restrained - she was the mother of three children. The signal switching counter was reset, and the locomotive crew of train 635 was made the last one.

Spain, 2004. 192 dead. 2050 wounded

On March 11, 2004, four powerful explosions occurred on commuter trains in Madrid during the morning rush hour. The suicide bombers, who were traveling on different trains, thus wanted to achieve maximum quantity victims. The attacks were carefully planned: they were carried out three days before parliamentary elections in Spain and exactly 911 days after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 (“9/11”). As it turned out, the sabotage was carried out by radical Islamists close to Al-Qaeda. As a result of the explosions, 192 people from 17 countries were killed and more than 2,050 were injured.

Iran, 2004. 295 dead. 460 wounded

On February 18, 2004, in Iran, near the village of Khayyam, cars with dangerous cargo derailed: sulfur, gasoline, nitrate fertilizers and cotton. Many onlookers from the village, journalists and even politicians came to watch the accident, who decided to raise their ratings on this accident. Due to the intense heat from the flames, the explosive carriages detonated. Experts later estimated the power of the explosion at 180 tons of TNT. As a result, the village of Khayyam was destroyed, and the explosion itself was heard even 70 kilometers from the epicenter. The explosion killed 295 people and injured another 460 people.

Egypt, 2002. 380 dead

On February 20, 2002, in Egypt, a routine trip on the Cairo-Luxor route turned into a real tragedy for passengers. Near the city of Al-Ayyat, one of the third-class carriages caught fire. Due to the fact that the driver did not immediately notice the flame, he drove another 10 kilometers. At this time, at speed, the flames began to grow stronger and stronger, engulfing subsequent carriages. Thus, the fire destroyed seven carriages. More than 380 people became victims of the disaster, several hundred received burns and injuries.

Sri Lanka, 2004. 1750 dead

On December 26, 2004, the worst train derailment in the history of railway transport occurred. It was caused by the infamous tsunami that hit the coast of Sri Lanka. At the moment when the passenger train stood waiting for the green signal at the semaphore near the village of Peraliya, a giant tsunami wave hit the shore from the ocean, sweeping away a huge train located 10 meters from the shore from the railway tracks. An 80-ton diesel locomotive was thrown 50 meters, and 30-ton carriages were scattered around the area. Two carriages were carried into the ocean. Only on the third day were rescuers able to get to the train. Of the 1,900 people on the train, no more than 150 survived the disaster.

Japan, 2005. 107 dead, 562 injured

April 25, 2005 in Japan high-speed train was behind schedule, so the driver decided to take a risk and exceeded the speed of up to 116 km/h at a dangerous turn, where the maximum permitted speed was 70 km/h. As a result, the train derailed and crashed into a parking building near Amagasaki Station. The first two carriages were literally flattened by the impact, the rest were also severely damaged. There were about 700 people on the train, of which 107 were killed and 562 were injured.