Tragedy from the railway tracks

The railway accident in India in early June killed hundreds of people, and it was not the first tragic incident in the history of the railway industry.

The train accident in India on June 2nd killed at least 288 people and injured more than 900. (Source: Al Jazeera)

Long history of development

Globally , the history of railway development began with the Diolkos double-track railway, 1.5m wide and 6.4km long, built by the Greeks in the 6th century BC. The first horse-drawn wagons on stone tracks appeared in Greece, Malta, and parts of the Roman Empire at least 2,000 years ago.

Around 1550, railways reappeared in Europe with wooden tracks. In 1768, iron rails began to be added to increase durability. By the end of the 18th century, iron rails appeared, and in 1802, William Jessop, an English civil engineer, opened the Surrey public railway in South London. Although still using horse-drawn carriages, this is considered the world's first public railway.

By 1804, Richard Trevithick built and test-drove the first locomotive in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. In 1811, the English inventor John Blenkinsop successfully designed the first steam locomotive. From 1830 onwards, railways were rapidly built throughout England and the world, becoming the dominant means of land transport for nearly a century until the advent of airplanes and automobiles.

In the decades following World War II, diesel and electric locomotives gradually replaced steam locomotives. From the 1960s onwards, high-speed rail began to appear in many countries, pioneered by Japan and France, offering very high speeds and significantly greater safety compared to traditional trains.

Popular means of transportation come with... risks.

Railways remain a popular means of transporting goods and people in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, and African nations, as well as in large countries like China, Russia, the United States, and Canada.

Traveling by train remains a popular choice for passengers for many reasons, from ticket prices and flexibility to comfort and environmental friendliness.

However, because railways are the primary mode of transport, used frequently while infrastructure has not kept pace, accidents still occur, despite the efforts of many governments to ensure railway safety.

With 13 million people traveling by train every day, India has the fourth-longest railway network in the world, spanning over 68,000 km. Each year, the railways in the world's most populous country serve approximately 8 billion passengers and transport 1.5 to 2 billion tons of freight.

However, despite the government's significant investments in improving railway safety, hundreds of accidents still occur annually due to various causes such as fires, brake failures, and natural conditions.

Most recently, a passenger train collided with a parked freight train and another passenger train on June 2nd in Balasore district of Odisha state in eastern Iraq. The accident caused several train carriages to derail and resulted in severe collisions, killing at least 288 people and injuring more than 900, many of whom are in critical condition.

According to the Indian Railways, railway accidents in the country over the past 10 years have killed at least 260,000 people.

Bloody trains

Not only in India, but in many countries around the world, the most horrific railway accidents have occurred.

The "Queen of the Sea" train in Sri Lanka is the deadliest railway tragedy in world history to date. The Sri Lankan "Queen of the Sea" train was engulfed by the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. At the time of the disaster, the train was en route from Colombo to Galle in southern Sri Lanka. According to station records, 1,500 tickets had been sold for the Galle journey, but an estimated 200 more people boarded at various stops without tickets. Therefore, the estimated number of fatalities in this tragedy is at least 1,700.

The train derailment in Bihar, India, occurred on June 6, 1981, when an Indian train traveling from Mansi to Saharsa was derailed by a cyclone and plunged into the Bagmati River, killing over 800 people. The train was carrying approximately 1,000 passengers crammed into nine carriages when it crashed. Indian authorities later stated that the train appeared to have suffered brake failure before derailing and plunging into the river. To this day, it remains considered the deadliest train accident in Indian history.

The fire at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne station in France occurred when a train carrying approximately 1,000 French troops returning from the Italian front on two trains was being combined. Due to a shortage of locomotives, the trains derailed, collided, and caught fire near Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne station. This catastrophic accident, which killed over 700 people on December 12, 1917, remains the largest railway disaster in French history.

The train tragedy at Ciurea station in Romania on January 13, 1917, claimed 600 lives. The incident occurred when a 26-car train carrying approximately 1,000 Romanian soldiers and civilians attempted to flee an attack by Nazi German forces. The train, traveling at excessive speed, derailed and caught fire after being moved to the right to avoid a collision with another train using a straight track.

The Guadalajara train accident in Mexico, which killed over 600 people, occurred on January 22, 1915, when the train's brakes failed while traveling at high speed down a slope. The train then derailed, plunging into a gorge near Guadalajara. Many victims died from being thrown from the train as it tilted at high speed.

At the time of the accident, the overloaded train was traveling from Colima to Guadalajara on the Pacific coast. The 20-car train had been specially allocated for the families of military officer Venustiano Carranza during the Mexican Revolution. Only 300 of the 900 passengers on board survived the largest accident in Mexico to date.

The Ufa train disaster occurred on June 4, 1989, near the city of Ufa in the Soviet Union, killing 575 people and injuring 800. It is considered the deadliest railway disaster in the country's history.

The disaster involved a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) spill from a ruptured pipeline near the railway line, where two passenger trains were passing each other between Ufa and Asha. The LPG leaking from the ruptured pipeline created a massive explosion, equivalent to 10 kilotons of TNT, completely destroying seven train cars, damaging 37 other cars and two locomotives.

The Balvano train disaster is the worst railway accident in Italy to date, considered one of the most unusual railway accidents of the century. The incident occurred near Balvano in southern Italy in the early morning of March 3, 1944, killing 520 people. The cause of the tragedy is believed to be carbon monoxide gas released from the locomotive's stalled steam engine while the train was stopped inside the Armi Tunnel.

Low-quality coal produced toxic and deadly carbon monoxide gas. Passengers and crew on the train did not realize the danger as the smoke containing toxic carbon monoxide slowly spread. Some passengers in the rear carriages survived because they managed to escape before the toxic gas reached them.

The Torre del Bierzo accident in Spain occurred on January 3, 1944. The disaster took place in the Torro Tunnel near Torre del Bierzo, in the province of León. The cause of the accident was the collision of three trains—a mail train, a locomotive, and a passenger train—inside the tunnel, causing several carriages to catch fire. The tragedy claimed nearly 500 lives.

A train derailment in Awash, Ethiopia, killed approximately 400 people and injured 500. To date, it remains the worst railway disaster in African railway history. The incident occurred on January 14, 1985, near the town of Awash in Ethiopia, when an express train derailed on a curve while crossing a bridge between the Arba and Awash railway stations on the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway line. Seven carriages plunged into a ravine on the Awash River. At the time of the accident, the train was carrying about 1,000 people and was reportedly traveling at a speed exceeding the permitted limit.

The Al Ayyat train disaster in Egypt claimed nearly 400 lives. On February 20, 2002, an 11-car train full of passengers, mostly Egyptians returning home for Eid al-Adha, the biggest Muslim festival of the year in the country, caught fire while en route from Cairo to Luxor. The fire originated in a car where a passenger was using a gas stove. The flames quickly spread to other cars, but the train driver continued on without realizing the fire in the cars behind him.

The burning train finally came to a stop at Al-Ayyat station, about 75 km from the capital Cairo, but the seven rear carriages were completely destroyed by fire, killing 383 people who died from burns and panic as they jumped from the train, and many others were injured.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tham-kich-tu-duong-ray-230221.html