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List of rail accidents from 1950 to the present.
The list includes some terrorist bombings.
For historic accidents before 1950, see List of pre-1950 rail accidents.
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1950
March 18, 1950 – Ashton, Ontario, Canada: Wind blows smoke and freshly fallen snow to obscure the headlight on a Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train doing switching maneuvers at Ashton; the apparently blinking light is misinterpreted as a clear signal by the engineer of an opposing train who throttles up and runs into passenger cars that were still standing on the mainline.
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1951
July 22, 1951 – Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia, Czecho-Slovakia: In the Slovakian Tatra Mountains (Vysoké Tatry), two electric mountain-train ČSD be collide. In this accident 13 people killed, and 6 people in the hospital be nearly dieded. In the 1895 in this place be late e like crash. (Prince Roland von Bagratuni, corespondent of the Railway Market & InfoBus, Poland - http: www.railway-market.pl & www.infobus.pl) *
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1952
October 8, 1952 – Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, United Kingdom: Three trains are involved in a crash that kills 112 and injures 340.
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1953
January 15, 1953 – Washington, DC, United States: The brakes fail on a Pennsylvania Railroad train; the train barrels through the end of track barriers and stationmaster's office at Union Station in Washington, DC, but nobody is killed in the accident. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration is scheduled the following week and there is no time to extract the GG-1 electric locomotive from the basement of Union Station where it ended after the floor of the concourse gave way, so the hole is planked over for the celebration week and after the inaugural festivities, the unit is cut up into three pieces, hauled to Altoona, Pennsylvania where it had been built and is welded back together to serve for another three decades. GG-1 No. 4876 is in the collection of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
March 27, 1953 – Conneaut, Ohio, United States: Three New York Central trains tangle near Conneaut on the four-track mainline on the night of March 27. Twenty-one passengers die. Cause is found to be an improperly secured gondola load - a section of thirteen-inch pipe fell from a freighter car onto the adjacent track, getting struck by a passenger train.
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1955
August 22, 1955 – Spring City Train Disaster, Spring City, Tennessee, United States: School bus disregards crossing signal and is struck by freight train. 11 dead, 39 hurt, all the dead are school children.
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1956
December 6, 1957 – Lewisham rail crash, England: A steam train passes a red signal in the fog and ploughs into the back of an electric train. The crash also destroys a support column of a railway bridge, causing parts of the bridge to collapse onto the wreck. 90 people are killed.
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1958
September 15, 1958 – Newark Bay, New Jersey, United States: A Central Railroad of New Jersey morning commuter train blows through stop signals, derails, then slides out the open drawspan. Both diesels and first two coaches plunge into Newark Bay and sink immediately, 48 drown. A third coach hangs precariously out the drawbridge for two hours, snagged by its rear truck, before it, too, topples into the water. As the whole operating crew was killed, no absolute determination for the accident was reached, but a medical emergency in the cab was theorized.
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1959
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1960
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1962
May 3, 1962 – Tokyo, Japan: three-train collision at Mikawashima Station, 160 killed.
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1963
1963 – Geurie crossing loop collision: A train pulled by a 265-tonne Beyer-Garrett 6003 locomotive in loop stands foul of main line, causing collision with NSWGR C38 class No.3817. Both locos are later written off.
1963 – Yokohama rail crash, Japan: Two commuter trains hit a derailed freight train. 161 killed.
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1964
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1966
October 1966 – Two passenger trains collide at Valebø, Norway. One driver gets killed.
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1967
April 14, 1967 – South Bend, IN: A single-car South Shore Line train struck debris on west side of town, rendering air brakes useless. Train rode through downtown unable to stop, striking several vehicles along the way. Train finally ran off end of track in storage yard into warehouse building. 1 serious injury, several minor injuries.
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1968
July 1969 – Two iron ore trains collide at the Ofotbanen line, Norway. One driver is killed and one is injured.
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1970
June 21, 1970 – Crescent City, Illinois, United States: Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad Company's Train No. 20 derails in downtown Crescent City; propane tank car ruptures and explosions cause fires that destroy the city center. No fatalities.
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1971
July 21, 1971 – Rheinweiler, Germany: A fast train from Basel to Copenhagen derails because of a technical failure in the Class 103 engine; 23 dead, 121 injured.
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1972
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1974
August 04, 1974 – A bomb explodes in car 5 of the Italicus Express running from Rome to Brennero on the night of the 4th August. Twelve passengers were killed and 44 were wounded. Ten years later in the same place, the same thing happened again.
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1975
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1976
May 4, 1976 – near Schiedam, the Netherlands: An international train collides with a local train, killing 24 and injuring 11.
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1977
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1978
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1979
1979 – Taling Chan, Thailand: 54 people are killed in the worst accident in Thai railway history when a commuter train (Thonburi - Nakhon Pathom) collides with a cargo train (Bangsue - Padang Besar) at Taling Chan on August 21, 1979 resulting from errors by the fatigued cargo train engineer; the fatigue was attributed to signal mishandling and prolonged maintenance of locomotive.
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1980
June 2, 1980– Hinsnoret-Ornäs, Dalarna, Sweden: 11 killed and over 60 injured as a passenger train and a freight train collide.
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1981
March 8, 1981 – A truck collides with a passenger train at a level crossing, sending five of the ten coaches over a bridge into a dry river bed in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Thirty are killed in what was the worst rail crash in Taiwan up to that point.
May 14, 1981 – Two express trains collide about 100 miles south of Seoul, killing 54 people.
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1982
January 27, 1982 – A passenger train traveling from Oran to Algiers derailed 50 miles west of the Algerian capital, killing at least 130 and injuring 146, in Algeria's worst train crash in 20 years.
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1983
May 27, 1983 – Frechen, Germany: The Oostende-Wien-Express night train derails due to trackbed damages. The engine hits a bridge and the first car jackknifes into the wreckage. Seven are killed, 23 injured.
August 21, 1983 – Cherryville Junction, County Kildare, Ireland: crash occurred when a train, which had run out of fuel and stopped on the tracks at Cherryville junction in Co. Kildare, was hit by a second train from the rear. 7 people were killed and 55 were injured. The official investigation found several organisational factors to have been substantial causes of the crash. These included: CIE rules that allowed drivers to proceed past red signals in certain circumstances; ambiguity of responsibility between the driver and the guard; and inadequate re-fuelling procedures.
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1984
November 25, 1984 – A train derailed between Sheung Shui and Fanling station on the . The incident occurred when the driver, preparing to back the train up to Sheung Shui station, failed to follow a speed/stop signal while the train was exceeding the speed limit. The train crashed into a boulder/buffer with the first 2 cars piling on top of each other. The degree of which they were damaged was so extensive that the cars never returned to service. Luckily, the passengers were unloaded prior to the crash while the driver sustained only minor injuries. However, the accident caused train services to suspend for the rest of the day and the incident spurred a series of public outcries concerning railway safety. It is certain that this was, and perhaps will remain, Hong Kong's most disastrous railway accident in her history.
December 23, 1984 – The Rapido 904 from Naples to Milan named the "Christmas train" explodes in the longest Italian tunnel of San Benedetto Val di Sambro. An alliance formed between Mafia groups "What ours" and the Neapolitan Racket was behind the massacre on Express 904. In that tunnel there remained the bodies of 15 people, and hundreds were seriously injured, some dying many years later.
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1985
March 20, 1985 – Ronnenberg, Germany: Two freight trains, one consisting of 20 tanker cars filled with petrol, the other consisting of 19 cars loaded with coal, collide in the densely populated suburb of Empelde, close to Hanover and ignite, the fire burning almost a day.
June 11, 1985 – Habonim disaster, 21 people killed, including 19 school children in a collision between a bus on a school field trip and a train going from Haifa to Tel Aviv near Moshav Habonim.
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1986
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1987
January 4, 1987 – Chase, Maryland rail wreck, Chase, Maryland, United States: The Amtrak Colonial collides with a set of Conrail freight locomotives that had missed a stop signal and were fouling the Northeast Corridor mainline at Gunpow Interlocking. The northbound passenger consist derails, killing 16 passengers, the lounge car attendant, and the Amtrak engineer The freight crew had been smoking marijuana; this notorious accident caused the US railroad industry to tighten up drug use detection among operational personnel.
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1988
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1989
1989 – Quilon Lake rail disaster, a train falls off a bridge and into a lake, killing 107. Officials claimed 'freak typhoon' caused the crash, despite meteorological assertions to the contrary.
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1990
January 4, 1990 – Sindh province, Pakistan: An overcrowded passenger train collides with a stationary freight train. Over 210 killed.
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1991
August 28 1991 – New York, New York: Five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a Lexington local train derails going over a switch just north of Union Square. Two subway cars split open as they strike the steel tunnel support beams. The uninjured motorman, whom passengers report had been handling the train erratically, flees the scene and is arrested later, testing out as legally drunk. This accident, coupled with the Amtrak Colonial wreck at Chase, Maryland on January 4, 1987, is instrumental in driving new federal rules for engineer certification and toxicology.
October, 1991 – Melun, France. A freight train overruns a closed signal, and fouls the path of the Nice-Paris night train. 16 people are killed. The accident was caused by a heart attack suffered by the freight train engineer. The deadman mechanism worked perfectly, but it was too late to stop the train in time. This led to the adoption of the KVB automatic train control system which will detect improper train handling.
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1992
March 12 1992 – A tram in Gothenburg, Sweden rolls backwards down a hill without control, derails near the bottom of it. There it glides sideways in a high speed into a tram stop where people are waiting. 13 killed, many injured.
June 30 1992 – near Superior, Wisconsin, United States: A Burlington Northern freight train transporting benzene encounters fatigued tracks and derails, plunging 3 tank cars off a trestle and into the Nemadji River. One of the cars ruptures, spilling 79 500 L (21,000 US gallons) of chemicals into the river, which are then carried into Lake Superior, forming a toxic cloud over Superior and Duluth, Minnesota. 40,000 area residents are evacuated; many suffer long-term health problems, and the damage to the surrounding environment is considerable.
August 12 1992 – just outside Newport News, Virginia, United States: Amtrak's Colonial passenger train, traveling at nearly 80 mph, enters a switch that had just moments before been opened by a pair of teenaged saboteurs. Though there are no fatalities, dozens are injured. 60 of the passengers subsequently sue Amtrak and CSX (who owned the right-of-way) for negligence, but the case is decided in favor of the railroad companies as it was determined that there was no way for the train crew to prevent the incident. The two teens are sentenced to federal prison terms for the crime.
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1993
March 17 1993 – near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States: An Amtrak passenger train strikes a gasoline tanker truck that has stopped on a grade crossing, causing the tanker to explode. Six people (including the truck driver) are killed and 12 injured. The dining car stops in the center of the fire and is totalled.
1993 - 114 killed in a Mombasa-bound passenger train which plunged into a river after floods wash away a bridge at Ngai Ndethya.
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1994
December 2 1994 – Szajol, Hungary: InterCity train traveling at 65 mph derails and crashes into the railway station's building, killing 31 passengers and injuring many people.
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1995
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September 8 1995 – Maidenhead. A commuter passenger train leaks diesel fuel when mounting bolts to a fuel tank fails. No-one killed in the subsequent fire, but one passenger killed on the track by a passing train after evacuation.
October 28 1995 - Baku, Azerbaijan – World's deadliest metro disaster. In Baku, an underground metro train catches fire during Saturday evening rush hour. 337 people are killed.
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1996
February 16, 1996 – Silver Spring, Maryland, United States: The engineer of a MARC commuter train bound for Washington Union Station, either misses or ignores a stop signal and collides with outgoing Amtrak train no. 29, the westbound Capitol Limited. The crash left 11 people dead aboard the MARC train. Three die of injuries suffered in the impact, but the rest are killed by smoke and flames, exacerbated by a natural gas tank located at trackside, which also ignites. This accident lead to the FRA instituting the Delay in Block Rule.
April 21, 1996 – Passenger train operating in heavy fog derails at Jokela, Finland because of overspeeding through a slow-speed turnout. The locomotive driver and three passengers were killed, and 75 were injured.
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1997
December 9, 1997 – Hanover, Germany: A regional train carrying more than 300 passengers collides with a freight train consisting of 20 tanker cars filled with petrol. Five of the wrecked tankers ignite and explode. More than 90 injured.
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1998
March 6 1998 – Express passenger train derails at Jyväskylä, Finland, as a result of over-speeding while passing over a slow-speed turnout. The locomotive driver and nine passengers were killed, 94 were injured.
April 4 1998 – Fatuha train crash, Atleast 11 people die in derailment near Patna(near Fatuha station) on the Howrah-Delhi main line as Howrah-Danapur Express derails between between Fatuha and Bankaghat stations.
June 3 1998 – Eschede train disaster, Eschede, Germany: Part of a high-speed ICE train derails due to a faulty wheel rim and strikes a bridge. The bridge collapses as the third car hits its pylons, the remaining cars and the rear power unit jackknife into the pile. The first three carriages are seperatated from each other and come to a halt at Eschede railway station whilst the undamaged power car continues for another two kilometres until its brakes are automatically applied. 101 are killed.
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1999
November 17, 1999 – 3 workmen using a pneumatic drill in Athens station are killed when they could not hear an approaching train from Halkida as it entered the station. They also apparently ignored the obvious timing factors relating to when trains would be actually scheduled to use the platform in the first place. The deaths are put down as being caused by the use of sloppy work routines. Reference- *
1999 - 32 die at Tsavo National park when brakes on a passenger train fail, forcing it to jump the rails.
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2000
January 4, 2000 – Åsta in Åmot, Norway: Two passenger trains collide on Rørosbanen killing 19 people. The fire after the collision of the two diesel powered trains lasted nearly 6 hours.
February 6, 2000 – Brühl, Germany: A night express train passes a construction area at excess speed and derails at Brühl station, crashing into a nearby house. 9 die.
March 2, 2000 – Kølkær, Denmark: Two regional trains collide frontally after one passes a red signal. 3 die and 39 are injured.
August 15, 2000 - 13 die near Kenya's fourth largest city, Kisumu after a passenger train rolls back because of brake failure.
August 19, 2000 - at least 25 burn to death after a goods train carrying gas rolls back and hits stationary wagons, exploding in the process.
/ October 17, 2000 – Hatfield rail crash, England: As the London-Leeds express passes at 115 mph (185 km/h), a faulty rail shatters into 300 pieces because of condition known as rolling contact fatigue. Four are killed, and 102 are injured. Implications of this rail failure forces biggest and most expensive re-railing exercise in British history. Operator Network Rail is found guilty in one of the longest rail-related trials in UK legal history, but manslaughter charges against company managers are not sustained.
June 28, 2000 - 13 children die after a goods train they were riding on derails in Padang. The Indonesian government cracks down on pasingers clnging on to the sides of freight trains as a means of free travel. (Source- BBC)
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2001
February 28, 2001 – Selby rail crash, Selby, North Yorkshire, England: A driver on England's M62 motorway falls asleep at the wheel and runs off the road, landing on railway tracks; he escapes, but the car is almost instantly hit by a passenger train, which derails and hits a coal train coming in the opposite direction. 10 people are killed, over 80 are injured.
May 15, 2001– A CSX freight train runs away in the yard at Toledo, Ohio, carrying 47 cars, including some with hazardous molten phenol acid, and no engineer aboard. The engineer had stepped out to reset a switch but had improperly applied the dynamic brake. It runs unmanned for 66 miles (106 km.) to Kenton, Ohio before being stopped by a railroad worker who jumps aboard and manages to stop it. CSX also previously managed to couple an engine onto the end of the train and slow it down to 10 mph.
July 18, 2001 – Howard Street Fire: A 60-car CSX train carrying chemicals and wood products derails in a 1.7 mile ( km) long tunnel under Baltimore, causing a fire that burns for six days and water contamination.
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