Rounding Up Europe's Rail Disasters
Posted: 27 Mar 2010, 08:44
Rounding Up Europe's Rail Disasters
European legislators are constantly working with rail companies and engineers to
help limit all types of accidents, structural damage to rolling stock and most
importantly loss of life. Whether due to human error, lack of adequate safety
measures, faulty equipment or a combination of factors, Europe's railways have
nevertheless still been the scene of tragic loss of life.
Here are some of the most prominent rail accidents of the last five years.
February 2010 (Belgium): Two passenger trains collide head on at Halle, near the
capital of Brussels, killing 25.
June 2009 (Italy): A freight train carrying gas explodes and crashes into
several homes in the seaside town of Viareggio, killing 22 people.
February 2009 (Slovakia): A passenger train ploughs into a tourist coach on a
level crossing near the town of Brezno, killing 11 people.
August 2008 (Czech Republic): An express train hits a collapsed bridge in the
town of Studenka, killing seven people and injuring 70.
February 2008 (Bulgaria): Fire sweeps through an overnight train near the town
of Cherven Bryag, killing nine people.
June 2007 (Italy): A head-on crash between cargo and passenger trains between
the towns of Bortigali and Birori in Sardinia kills three people.
February 2007 (England): One woman dies and 89 people are injured when a
passenger train derails in Cumbria.
January 2007 (Turkey): A freight train smashes into a truck carrying farm
workers at a railway crossing in Hatay Province, killing seven people.
October 2006 (Italy): Two people are killed and around 60 injured when two metro
trains collide at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station in Rome.
October 2006 (France): A goods train and a passenger train collide just south of
the border with Luxembourg, killing six people.
September 2006 (Germany): A magnetic monorail train collides with a maintenance
wagon in Lathen, killing 23 people.
August 2006 (Spain): A passenger train derails in the north, killing six people
and injuring least 36.
June 2006 (Spain): A metro train crash in Valencia kills at least 30 people and
injures dozens of others.
January 2006 (Montenegro): At least 39 people die and 135 are injured when a
train plunges down a ravine after its brakes fail in Podgorica.
January 2005 (Italy): A crowded train collides head on with a freight convoy in
thick fog near Bologna, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 50.