Not a Good Month for Railways!

[ChristopherJ]

Before anyone mentions road safety, yes, I am aware that there are a colossal amount of more accidents on the roads than the railways but it is uncommon and frightening for there to be up to five serious accidents on the railway all to occur in the same month - it's not the norm.

July 6th, Lac-Megantic, Canada, petroleum train derails, 42 killed, unspecified injured.

July 12th, Bretigny-sur-Orge, France, intercity passenger train derails, 6 killed, 200 injured.

July 21st, Norwich, UK, regional passenger train collides with stationary passenger train, 0 killed, 8 injured.

July 24th, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, intercity passenger train derails due to excessive speed, 78 killed, 140 injured.

July 30th, Granges-pres-Marnand, Switzerland, two regional passenger trains collide, 0 killed* , 40 injured.

* initial reports stated no loss of life in the Swiss crash but in the past few minutes a report has suggested one of the two drivers has died.

This is a month I expect the railway would prefer to forget.

 

[swt_passenger]

I rather think the Norwich incident has nothing like the significance of all the others though. In the context of a sequence of disasters around the world I wouldn't include it...

 

[TheEdge]

But the other people were all foreign!

 

[Eagle]

Okay if you want to do this properly you need to include the one at Sheikhupura (July 6, 14 dead) and the one at Gujranwala (July 25, four dead). Or do fatal train accidents not count unless they happen in the West?

There was also this major derailment in Krasnodar on July 7. Fortunately no fatalities but over 75 injured, a number of them still in hospital.


Isn't it funny how none of the news sources I've quoted were British?

 

[David Barrett]

And the number of road deaths over the same period of time was?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Isn't it funny how none of the news sources I've quoted were British?

Ah yes, the British, the only people in the world who aren't foreigners!

 

[Max]

And the number of road deaths over the same period of time was?

Come on, the OP specifically acknowledged this point... :roll:

Although it might seem ominous on the face of it, the incidents quoted clearly aren't linked, it's just a sad coincidence that these relatively rare accidents have all happened around the same time.

 

[Bill EWS]

Another case of listing and cutting & pasting similar incidents to try and show that there is some National/International connection to make accidents look worse or are elate din any way. The law of averages dictate that there will always be a perentage of failures and accidents in any man-made system. I don't use accidents in other countries to relate with accidents in the U.K. Except, of course, if it was the same company, management and train working systems that run all of them! They are all separate incidents and in comparson with the amount of safe train working that occurs daily it needs to be seen in that light. As sad as these incidents are, they are not anywherenear to being the 'norm'.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Train accidents are always highly reported in the media ....(possibly because they are news worthy as they are generally fairly rare) - this does not take away the significant issues to those involved. Road accidents (3000 deaths a year or so in the UK) - are usually of local media interest apart from those with multiple deaths and injuries. Think of how many are reported in the Daily Mails of this world.

Railways are good "shock horror stuff" ....twas ever thus ...!

 

[neonison]

...and to make a fair comparison OP should have posted other months too.

 

[valenta]

...and to make a fair comparison OP should have posted other months too.

I think we can gauge from the fact that around 144 people had died as a result of railway incidents that it has been quite a "bad" month for the railways, this number of deaths isn't normal.

 

[jopsuk]

There's this list for this decade.

2000-2009

Earlier ones are easily accesible from there.

 

[Gordon]

I think its a bit unfair to complain about the title or content of the original post. Quite clearly it has been a bad 'wave' of transport accidents in unusually quick successison (including the Italian coach disaster).

The French phrase used in these circumstances avoids any 'this month that month' comparison by just calling it a 'Série noir'

* initial reports stated no loss of life in the Swiss crash but in the past few minutes a report has suggested one of the two drivers has died.

Sadly the driver of the northbound train is the fatality, but it seems likely that the driver of the other (southbound) train may have passed a red signal. I have cited possible factors in the thread about this accident:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87455



.

 

[ChristopherJ]

The French phrase used in these circumstances avoids any 'this month that month' comparison by just calling it a 'Série noir'

Sadly, another incident occured in France this morning to add to injury. Eight injured in Nord-pas-de-Calais.

http://railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87610

 

[MK Tom]

Before anyone mentions road safety, yes, I am aware that there are a colossal amount of more accidents on the roads than the railways but it is uncommon and frightening for there to be up to five serious accidents on the railway all to occur in the same month - it's not the norm.

July 6th, Lac-Megantic, Canada, petroleum train derails, 42 killed, unspecified injured.

July 12th, Bretigny-sur-Orge, France, intercity passenger train derails, 6 killed, 200 injured.

July 21st, Norwich, UK, regional passenger train collides with stationary passenger train, 0 killed, 8 injured.

July 24th, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, intercity passenger train derails due to excessive speed, 78 killed, 140 injured.

July 30th, Granges-pres-Marnand, Switzerland, two regional passenger trains collide, 0 killed* , 40 injured.

* initial reports stated no loss of life in the Swiss crash but in the past few minutes a report has suggested one of the two drivers has died.

This is a month I expect the railway would prefer to forget.

You left out the freight train that derailed in Tampa, Florida and started leaking hazardous materials.

Putting Norwich and Santiago on the same list is a bit like comparing the November 2011 disaster on the M5 to someone backing into a lamppost.