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At about the same time, the Super Continental was stopped at Hinton. It departed five minutes late on the single track. At 8:29 am, as the Super Continental approached the start of the double track section, the dispatcher from the CTC lined the dual-control switch at Dalehurst to the south track. This set the absolute three-aspect signal at the Dalehurst control point on the north line before the end of double-track) to an absolute stop indication of three steady red lights, telling the freight train to not proceed any further. This also set the double-aspect approach signal located 13,600 feet east of Dalehurst to yellow over red, telling the freight train to reduce its speed to 30 miles per hour and to prepare to stop at Dalehurst.
The crash investigation found that the freight train was traveling at 59 mph as it passed the approach signal—9 mph over the 50 mph speed limit. No attempt was made by the crew of the freight train to slow down before or after passing the approach signal.
The freight train proceeded past the Dalehurst control point, running through the switch and into the section of single track. At 8:40 am, approximately 18 seconds after the lead locomotive of the freight train entered the single section, it collided head on with the oncoming Super Continental.
Both lead locomotives were destroyed killing their crews. The front cars and freight wagons derailed. Diesel fuel from the locomotives ignited, engulfing them, the baggage car, and the day coach in flames; 18 of the day coach's 36 occupants died. Due to momentum, the cars on the freight train piled up on each other resulting in a large pile of debris. All three freight locomotives followed by 76 hoppers and tank cars were either destroyed or severely damaged.
On the passenger train, one coach was crushed by a freight car after it was thrown into the air by the force of the collision, killing one of its occupants. In the dome car, others were able to escape either through a window in the dome that had been broken by passengers, or through the hole left by the freight car. The two sleepers following the dome car jackknifed into each other and were thrown on their sides causing injuries but no deaths. The mid train locomotive was severely damaged .) The last three passenger cars at the rear of the train did not derail, but there were many injuries.
After the rear of the freight train came to a halt, Conductor Smith, still in the caboose, attempted to contact the front of the train before contacting emergency services after seeing the fire.
The Canadian government set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the crash. It was led by Justice René P. Foisy, Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. The inquiry lasted 56 days of public hearings and received evidence from 150 parties. The Foisy Commission published its full report on 22 January 1987.
The inquiry concluded that no one individual was to blame, instead it condemned what Foisy described as a "railroader culture" that prized loyalty and productivity at the expense of safety. As an example of lax attitudes to safety, Foisy noted that engineering crews that took over trains at Edson did so "on the fly". While the locomotive was moving slowly through the yard, the new crew would jump on and the previous crew would jump off. While this method saved time and fuel, it was a flagrant violation of safety regulations which required stationary brake tests after a crew change. Management claimed to be unaware of this practice, even though it was quite common. In regards to engineer John Hudson, the Foisy Commission concluded it was a possibility that the collision happened because he had either fallen asleep at the controls or had suffered a heart attack or stroke due to his extremely poor health.
The report highlighted that there was no evidence that either train made any attempt to brake prior to the collision. Analysis of the line showed both trains would have only been visible to each other for the final 19 seconds before the collision. No conclusive reason could be found for the failure of the passenger train crew to react, neither was there any evidence that the Super Continental crew had made any errors before the accident. No evidence could be found to explain why the freight train failed to stop at the absolute signal at the Dalehurst control point. After a wrong-side signal problem was eliminated, human error was considered the only possible cause. Tests on the crews' remains ruled out drugs or alcohol as a cause, though it was revealed that the engineer of the freight train, Jack Hudson, was an alcoholic and heavy smoker who suffered from pancreatitis and type 2 diabetes, thus placing him at risk for a heart attack or stroke. The commission further criticized CN's ineffective monitoring of Hudson's health condition:
The serious nature of Hudson's medical condition...raises a strong possibility that it was a factor contributing to the collision of February 8...The Commission therefore concludes that engineer Hudson's medical condition possibly contributed to his failure to control Train 413. The Commission also concludes that there are serious deficiencies in the manner in which CN monitored and reacted to that condition. The Commission finds that both the policies and procedures that permitted a man in Hudson's medical state to be responsible for the operation of a freight train on the CN main line to be unacceptable.
Another frequently ignored safety regulation mentioned in the report was the "deadman's pedal", which a locomotive engineer had to keep depressed for the train to remain underway. Were he to fall asleep or pass out, his foot would slip from the pedal, triggering an alarm and engaging the train's brakes automatically a few seconds later. However, many engineers found this tiresome and bypassed the pedal by placing a heavy weight on it. It was uncertain whether the pedal had been bypassed in this case because the lead locomotive of the train had been destroyed. A more advanced safety device was available, the reset safety control , which required crew members to take an action such as pushing a button at regular intervals, or else automatic braking would occur, but neither lead locomotive was equipped with this safety feature. While the second locomotive in the freight train was equipped with RSC, it was not assigned as the lead locomotive because it lacked a "comfort cab". Management and union practice was to place more comfortable locomotives at the front of trains, even at the expense of safety.
The report also noted that although the front-end and rear-end crews should have been in regular communication, that did not appear to be the case in this accident. As the freight train reached Hargwen, Engineer Hudson radioed back to Conductor Smith that the signals were green, a communication that was heard by a following freight. As it ran towards Dalehurst there was no evidence of further communication. The conductor is in charge of the train, so if Smith felt that the train was out of control or there were serious problems, he should have activated the emergency brake in the caboose to stop the train. However, Smith, who appeared to be nervous while testifying, said that he did not feel that the freight was ever out of control, misjudging its speed. He also testified that he attempted to radio Hudson on two radios and several channels, but neither seemed to be working, even though immediately after the crash Smith was able to contact the dispatcher by radio. In any event, on the failure to receive communication from the head end, regulations required him to activate the emergency brake.
Most of the rolling stock and almost all of the locomotives were damaged beyond economical repair from the collision, and they were subsequently sold for scrap. Only the inoperable Via Rail unit, PF9ARM 6300, was repaired after the collision. It returned to service following a rebuild with an entire new cab from a Kansas City Southern F7 locomotive 4062. It was the last FP9 in service on Via Rail before it was retired in September 2011, and it was subsequently acquired by the British Columbia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. As of 2022, 6300 resides at the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City, Utah.
The disaster was featured in "Head-on Collision", a Season 3 Crash Scene Investigation episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday For broadcasters that do not use the series name Mayday, this is one of three Season 3 episodes labelled as Crash Scene Investigation spin-offs, examining marine or rail disasters.
The Jeannette's Creek train wreck, also known as the Baptiste Creek train wreck, was a fatal railroad accident that occurred on October 27, 1854, at Baptiste Creek near present-day Jeannettes Creek in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. It was Canada's first major train wreck, leaving 52 people dead and indeed the worst rail disaster in North America at that time.
The train involved left Niagara Falls the previous afternoon; it comprised eight cars altogether; four first-class, two second-class and two baggage cars. As was commonplace during that early time of rail travel it was subject to several delays; these were caused by dense fog, a derailed gravel-train, a burst cylinder head and a slow freight train ahead of it. By the time it left London at 1 a.m. bound for Windsor it was at least four hours late.
At Baptiste Creek, a gravel train consisting of fifteen cars loaded with wet gravel was on a siding employed in repairing the trackbed. Its engineer had been told by the night watchman at Baptiste Creek station that it was safe to venture onto the mainline as the passenger train had already passed; at 5 a.m. as the train backed along the main railway line at between ten and twelve mph the passenger train emerged from the fog at a speed of twenty mph.
The collision was described as "absolutely dreadful", the second-class cars were described as being "smashed into bits and pieces" with "nearly every person of them killed or dreadfully injured". The people in the front of one of the first class cars suffered a similar fate.
Witnesses described several of the bodies, which included eleven women and ten children, as being "crushed out of all human shape". Some six hours later, many of the bodies still had to be recovered. The second-class cars carried many German emigrants on their way to start a new life in the United States. The 48 injured were taken to Chatham where their moans and cries could be "heard throughout the town", with blood literally dripping from the cars.
A grand jury found that Twitchell, conductor of the gravel train and Kettlewell, engineer of the train were criminally responsible for the death of 52 persons and they were charged with manslaughter. According to the jury, the gravel train had entered onto the track in contravention of the rules of the Great Western, and in any case, should not have proceeded onto the track in the dense fog.
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The Ponton train derailment, near Ponton, Manitoba on September 15, 2018, fatally injured train conductor Kevin Anderson, injured the train's engineer, and triggered a spill of diesel fuel.
The train was pulled by 3 locomotives, and contained "several dozen" tanker cars, loaded with "liquid petroleum". Initially Arctic Gateway Group reported that no oil had been spilled. On September 19 Global News described the train's cargo in greater detail, stating it included gasoline, liquid propane gas and butane. Global reported that while none of the cargo had been spilled rail workers were trying to contain diesel fuel that was leaking from the locomotives.
The train was crossing the Metishto River, when it derailed. Accounts differ as to when the train derailed. Global reports the train derailed at 6:45 pm. CBC reports the train derailed around 3:45 am. First responders arrived around 5:45. Anderson's autopsy stated Anderson died from blood loss, and his wounds were survivable. However he continued to bleed for hours, after first responders arrived.
By September 20 several news sources reported an investigator from the Transportation Safety Board attributed the derailment to the work of beavers.
The St-Hilaire train disaster occurred on June 29, 1864, near the present-day town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. A passenger train fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River after the crew failed to obey a stop signal. The widely accepted death toll is 99 people.
The disaster remains the worst railway accident in Canadian history.
During the 19th century, the Richelieu River served as an important waterway for trade between New York City and Montreal. Tourism also developed in the area greatly due to the steamboats that travelled up and down the river. The Belœil Bridge was built as a swing bridge so that the railway would not interrupt the shipping lanes. The bridge connects the present-day municipalities of Otterburn Park, on the river's east bank, with McMasterville, on its west bank. Other nearby municipalities are Mont-St-Hilaire, on the east bank, and Beloeil, on the west bank.
On June 29, 1864, a Grand Trunk train carrying between 354 and 475 passengers, many of them German and Polish immigrants, was travelling from Quebec City to Montreal.
The passengers had arrived in a ship from Hamburg, Germany, the previous day. Specialized immigration cars, Colonist cars, had not yet been developed for North American immigration, so the passengers were crammed into nine crudely converted box cars and one old passenger car.
At around 1:20 a.m. local time the train was approaching the Belœil Bridge. The swing bridge had been opened to allow the passage of five barges and a steamer ship. A red light 1.6 km ahead of the bridge signalled to the train that the crossing was open and it needed to slow. However, the light was not acknowledged by the conductor, Thomas Finn, or the engineer, William Burnie, and the train continued towards the bridge from the east.
At 1:20 a.m. the train came onto the bridge and fell through the open gap. The engine and eleven coaches fell one after another on top of each other, crushing a barge underneath. The train and barge sank into an area of the river with a depth of 3 metres . The crash killed 99 people aboard and approximately 100 more were injured. Among the dead were engine conductor Thomas Finn and the engine fireman. The engineer, William Burnie, was slightly injured and was able to escape the wreck.
Survivors were rescued by the crews of the steamer and barges, who in some cases had to chop open the sides of the sinking boxcars. The Grand Trunk Railway sent large numbers of men to assist the recovery and relief efforts the following day. The rescue effort was supported by members of the German Society of Montreal, the St. George's Society of Montreal, the St. Patrick's Society of Montreal and the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society of Montreal. The hospitals and other institutions in nearby Montreal were used for the injured passengers. The dead were also brought to Montreal and buried in the Mount Royal and Roman Catholic cemeteries.
The Grand Trunk Railway tried to blame the disaster on the conductor and engineer for failing to obey the standing order to stop before crossing the bridge. The engineer, who had only recently been hired, claimed that he was not familiar with the route and that he did not see the signal. He also claimed that the signal was not clear enough for him to see.
On October 5, 1864, a grand jury placed full responsibility for the disaster on the Grand Trunk Railway for negligence in failing to ensure all trains stopped before crossing the bridge as required by statute: "…the Grand Jury consider it their duty to reiterate their solemn conviction that the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada are mainly responsible for the melancholy catastrophe of the 29th of June last, and the great destruction of life caused thereat, and that they trust the said Company will be found amenable to tribunal for their shameful treatment of their numerous passengers on that occasion."
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The 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts on 11 July. They took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital. The bombs were set off in pressure cookers on trains plying on the Western Line Suburban Section of the Mumbai Division of Western Railway. The blasts killed 209 people and injured over 700 more.
Pressure cooker bombs were placed on trains on the Western Line of the suburban train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network. Pressure cookers were used in this bombing and other recent explosions to increase the afterburn in a thermobaric reaction, more powerful than conventional high explosives. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST , and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18:35, during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim Junction, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali. Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".
The bomb attacks in Mumbai came hours after a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, the largest city of Indian UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Home Secretary V K Duggal said there was no link between the Srinagar and Mumbai bomb blasts.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil confirmed that a total of 200 people were killed and another 714 others have been injured. Additionally, various news organisations have reported that at least 200 people have died and that more than 700 others have been injured. A week after the blasts in Mumbai the confirmed death toll rose to 207. In September 2006 it was confirmed that the death toll had risen to 209.
A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai were placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network was at first shut down, although some trains resumed service later, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, were instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.
The Prime Minister also held a security meeting at his residence attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and Home Secretary V K Duggal.
Western Railway services were restored on 11 July by 10.45 pm. As a show of investor confidence, the Bombay Stock Exchange rebounded, starting the day with the BSE Sensex Index up by nearly 1% in morning trade. Foreign investors also retained confidence, with the Sensex up almost 3% at 10,930.09 at the end of the day's trade.
However a study commissioned by former MP Kirit Somaiya noted that only 174 of the 1,077 victims had received compensation through the Railway Claims Tribunal. For the handicapped victims, only 15 out of 235 eligible cases had been taken care of. Regarding the Prime Minister's promise to India concerning the rehabilitation of the victims, L. K. Advani noted that "none of the above mentioned assurances has been fulfilled to any degree of satisfaction"
Due to the mobile phone networks being jammed, news channels ran tickertapes with information of injured individuals as well as SMS messages from those who wished to contact their families. Reports indicated that at around 18:00 UTC on 11 July , the phone networks were restoring service; telephone service was completely restored during the night.
Mumbai Help, a blog run by around thirty bloggers, was a useful source of information, especially for those outside India.
Some 350 people were detained 36 hours after the incident in Maharashtra — police claim that these are people rounded up for investigations. On 14 July, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a terrorist organisation Front linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba , claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an e-mail to an Indian TV channel, the outfit says it organised the bombings using 16 people who are all "safe". According to the e-mail, the main motive seems to have been a retaliation to the situation in the Gujarat and Kashmir regions, possibly referring to the alleged oppression of Muslim minorities in certain parts of the region. It also says that the blasts were part of a series of attacks aimed at other sites such as the Mumbai international airport, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi. The authorities are investigating this claim and are trying to track the location of the e-mail sender. However, on 17 July, the forensic science laboratory Mumbai has confirmed the use of a mixture of the highly explosive RDX and Ammonium Nitrate for the bombings. The presence of these explosives in the post explosive debris was confirmed by modern techniques such as Liquid Chromatography with mass detector , Gas Chromatography with mass detector and Ion Scan Chromatography. They have indicated a strong possibility of all explosives being planted at the Churchgate railway station, which was the starting point for all affected trains.
Initially, religious extremists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India terrorist groups, and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI were the prime suspects. Both Lashkar and SIMI denied responsibility for the bombings. There was also evidence about the involvement of the international Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda following a phone call from a man claiming to be a spokesperson for the group on 13 July. The alleged al-Qaeda spokesman had said the blasts were a "consequence of Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims."
On 30 September 2006, CNN reported that "The Indian government accused Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, of planning 11 July Mumbai train bombings that killed 209 people".
The New York City Police Department was intensely concerned about the attacks, citing their simplicity and lethality. To address these worries, the department deployed Brandon del Pozo, a Jordanian-based intelligence officer, to Mumbai to collect information on the attacks and report on ways they reflected similar vulnerabilities in the New York City's extensive commuter rail system.