The 10 Worst Deadliest Train Disasters of All Time

Today, we have decided to speak about train accidents, their frequency and consequences in the States. But we have suddenly decided to change the topic a bit and not only discuss the personal injury train Accidents in America over the last few years, but to make a short trip in the world’s worst historical train crashes which occurred during the last century. So here is the short list of the Top 10 accidents we would like to discuss. We hope that you’ll find these cases interesting!

• 1910 - Washington - 96 victims - The reason for the accident was an avalanche, as the train was snowed in by a blizzard in the Cascade mountain region of Washington. The train was knocked in a gorge, where all the passengers died.
• 1915 - Mexico - 600 victims - The train plunged into a canyon after derailing. The passengers who died in this accident were mainly families of soldiers, who were travelling to Guadalajara.
• 1917 - France - 700 victims - The train failed to stop quickly on a descent and derailed as a result of that. It was loaded with French soldiers on their way home after fighting in Italy (WWI).
• 1944 - Italy - 530 victims - The cause for their death was smoke asphyxiation after the train crashed in a tunnel with another freight train.
• 1946 - Brazil - 185 victims - The locomotive, as well as four passenger cars derailed on a steep descent.
• 1953 - New Zealand - 151 victims - The volcanic eruption of Mt. Ruapehu’s lahar causes a bridge destruction. As a result the train plunges into a river, causing the death of all passengers on it.
• 1972 - France - 108 victims - The accident came as a result of a tunnel collapse. The train, actually, strikes debris from the tunnel collapse, causing it to derail. A few minutes later, another passenger train enters the tunnel and crashes into the first one. That’s considered the worst tunnel accident ever and has caused deaths in both trains.
• 1981 - India - 608 victims - Brake failure, after a few minutes of speeding is the leading cause for the death of so many people.
• 1989 - Russia - 575 victims - The reason for their death was an external explosion, as two passenger trains pass a leaking nearby gas pipeline. 4000 of the victims were killed instantly. This is the worst train explosion in the Russian history.
• 2002 - Egypt - 383 (reported) -1000 (media-estimated) victims - 7 cars had burned to the ground, destroying everything and everyone inside them, before the train engineer realized that the cooking cylinder had exploded and caught fire.
• 2004 - Sri Lanka - 1700 victims - In December 2004 an earthquake in Sumatra generated a tsunami that killed about 1700 people on a train in Sri Lanka. This is the signed worst tsunami in history.

As you have probably noticed, not all of these train accidents came as a result of a natural disaster. Some of them were a result of the negligence of the staff working on them or machine failure. Otherwise said, they were classic personal injury cases. Although these examples show some real disasters, the same negligence laws apply for both big and small train negligence cases in US. If you are interested to learn more how you can get reimbursed for major or minor accidents in trains, that you have survived, you can speak to a qualified train accident lawyer. In order to find one you can use the free help of 855-WIN-THE-CASE.