[ Hazards & Disasters ]  [ Technological Events ]
Subway
Train Accidents
- 1903, August
10th. - France, Paris, Couronnes Station: Métro train fire
on the Line 2 Nord (2 North); 84 people died.
- 1918, November
2nd. - USA, New York City, Brooklyn, Malbone Street: around 7
p.m. a Brighton Beach Train (B.R.T.) of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
Company, made up of five wooden cars of the oldest type in use, which
was speeding with a rush hour crowd to make up lost time on its way
from Park Row to Coney Island, jumped the track on a sharp curve approaching
the tunnel at Malbone Street and plunged into a concrete partition
between the north and south bound tracks.
The train was being run by a train dispatcher who had been pressed
into service in the rush hour because of the strike of motormen, which
began in the early morning. At 2 o'clock this morning, as a result
of the wreck, the motormen called off the strike, leaving the adjustment
of their grievances to the Public Service Commission. The District
Attorney ordered all the officials of the B.R.T who could have been
responsible, and members of the train crew put under arrest. He said
the B.R.T. officials had withheld the name of the man who was operating
the train.
Nearly every one in the first car was killed, and most of those in
the second were killed or badly injured.
- 1928, August
24th. - USA, New York City, Times Square: train derailment; 16
people died and 100 were injured.
- 1970, August
1st.
- USA, New York City, near Bowling Green: train fire in a tunnel;
1 person died and 50 were injured; the one death occurred when a woman,
who returned to the train to retreive her purse, died of smoke inhalation.
- 1981, July
3rd.
- USA, New York City, Brooklyn tunnel: an IRT train crashed into the
rear of a stopped subway: A subway motorman died and more than 135
passengers were injured.
- 1987, November
18th. - United Kingdom, London, King's Cross Underground Station:
a fire probably ignited by a discarded match and fed by rubbish and
grease beneath wooden escalators burnt out the top level (entrances
and ticket halls) of the huge interchange station which has platforms
on the Victoria, Piccadilly, Northern, Circle, Hammersmith & City,
and Metropolitan lines; 34 people died and more than 60 were injured.
- 1991, August
28th. - USA, New York City, north of Union Square: Five people
are killed and more than 200 a southbound Subway No. 4 train derailed
going over a switch; the motorman, Robert Ray, who was drunk and going
more than 40 mph where the speed limit was 10 mph, is later convicted
of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison; 5 people died
and more than 200 were injured.
- 1995, August
11th. - Canada, Toronto, halfway between St. Clair West and Dupont
Stations: at 6:02 p.m. on Friday a subway train running southbound
on the Yonge-University Spadina line ran into the rear of a stationary
train. There were about 200 to 300 passengers on the two trains; 3
people died and 30 others were taken to hospital with injuries; about
100 more filed injury claims against the subway operator TTC.
o The accident was caused first by the inexperienced driver, Robert
Jeffrey, who mistook the signals, and then the train stop failed to
protect the train due to a design error.
- 2000. Juni
21st.
- USA, New York City, Brooklyn, DeKalb Avenue: around 10:00 p.m. a
southbound B train derailed and the first three cars jumped the tracks;
approximately 70 people were injured.
- 2003, February
18th.
- South Korea, Daegu, Joongang-ro Station: a 53-year-old arsonist
set fire to a train stopped at the station of the Daegu Metropolitan
Subway; the fire then spread to a second train which had entered the
station from the opposite direction; 198 people died and more than
147 were injured.
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