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List of American railroad accidents

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This is a list of the most serious U.S. rail-related accidents (excluding intentional acts such as the 1939 City of San Francisco derailment).

19th century

1830s

  • 1833 Hightstown rail accident, Hightstown, New Jersey; two killed plus 15 injured. Earliest recorded train accident involving the death of passengers.[1][2]
  • 1837 Suffolk head-on collision, Suffolk, Virginia; 3 killed plus dozens injured. Later in the year, a second accident resulted in ten injuries, with two of them ultimately dying.[3]

1850s

1860s

  • 1863 Chunky Creek Train Wreck, Hickory, Mississippi; ~75 killed plus ~25 injured. All but one of the dead were Confederate reinforcements headed for Vicksburg, with the disaster--Mississippi's deadliest rail disaster to date--further hindering the city's defenses against Union forces[12]
  • 1864 Shohola train wreck, Shohola Township, Pennsylvania; ~65 killed plus many more injured. One of the trains was carrying Confederate POWs and Union guards, and citizens of Shohola and nearby Barryville, New York, treated the wounded 'without regard to the colour of their uniforms'[13]
  • 1867 Angola Horror, Angola, New York; 49 killed. Led to the standardization of track gauges in the U.S., as well as advancements in coach brake and heating systems. Deadliest train wreck in New York outside New York City.[14]

1870s

  • 1871 Wappinger Creek trestle disaster, New Hamburg, New York; 22 confirmed killed plus scores unaccounted for. May have a higher number of missing victims than any other U.S. rail disaster to date[15][16][17]
  • 1871 Great Revere train wreck, Revere, Massachusetts; ~30 killed. Victims' and families' crippling lawsuits against the company at fault—the Eastern Railroad—led to its forced merger with arch rival, the Boston & Maine[18]
  • 1876 Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster, Ashtabula/Edgewood, Ohio; 92 killed plus 64 injured. The deadliest U.S. rail disaster of the 19th century--also Ohio's deadliest to date--led to changes in bridge construction code, the replacement of coal and wood stoves with steam heat in coaches, and mandatory federal investigation of all U.S. rail disasters[19]
  • 1877 Pickering Valley wreck, Kimberton, Pennsylvania; 7 killed plus dozens injured. Led Pennsylvania's Supreme Court to formulate a rule that when a railroad accepts money from passengers, an implied contract of care upon the part of the company arises; thus negligence is presumed on the part of the railroad if a passenger is injured[20]
  • 1878 Tariffville train crash, Tariffville, Connecticut; 13 killed plus 70+ injured. Death toll might have been worse if not for what was possibly the first emergency phone call in history[21]
  • 1878 Wollaston disaster, Quincy, Massachusetts; 19 killed and 170 injured[22]

1880s

1890s

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20th century

1900s

  • 1900 Casey Jones's final run, Vaughan, Mississippi; 1 killed (Jones); everyone else escaped with varying degrees of injury. Inspired several different ballads about the incident[43][44]
  • 1900 Camp Creek train wreck, McDonough, Georgia; 39 killed. Bodies of many dead were brought to McDonough Town Square for identification; local folklore claims this has resulted in it being haunted ever since[45]
  • 1900 Tacoma streetcar disaster, Tacoma, Washington; 43 killed plus 65 injured[46]
  • 1901 Buffalo Bill Show train wreck, Lexington, North Carolina; no human deaths but well over 100 show animals killed. This likely led to the demise of "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show Tours.[47]
  • 1902 Park Avenue Tunnel (railroad) collision, New York City; 15 killed plus 30+ injured. Led to the construction of the current Grand Central Terminal and electrification of all rail lines in New York City[48][49][50]
  • 1902 Mountain Lake (New York) railroad wreck, Gloversville, New York; 14 killed. The little electric railroad known for its scenic tourism never recovered and was eventually removed altogether[51][52]
  • 1903 Esmond Train Wreck, Esmond, Arizona; 14 killed. Remains Arizona's deadliest rail disaster to date[53]
  • 1903 Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia; 11 killed. What is possibly Virginia's deadliest rail disaster to date inspired the famous ballad of the same name sung by many famous musicians[54][55]
  • 1903 Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana; 17 killed. Devastated Purdue University's Football team for the year, who are honored before every game to this day.[56][57]
  • 1903 Connellsville train wreck, Connellsville, Pennsylvania; 64 killed plus 68 injured[58]
  • 1904 Jackson rail disaster, Jackson, Utah; 30+ killed. Most of town was leveled altogether[59]
  • 1904 Eden train wreck, Pueblo, Colorado; 88 confirmed killed plus scores missing. Colorado's deadliest rail disaster to date[60][61]
  • 1904 New Market train wreck, New Market, Tennessee; 60+ killed plus 100+ injured[62][63]
  • 1905 Ninth Avenue derailment, New York City; 13 killed plus 48 injured. Deadliest accident on New York's elevated railways[64]
  • 1905 Baker Bridge train wreck, Lincoln, Massachusetts; 17 killed plus 33 injured. Led RR commission to encourage railroads and street railways where trains or cars followed each other in quick succession to implement a signalling block system[65]
  • 1906 Cimarron River bridge disaster, Dover, Oklahoma; 4 confirmed fatalities plus scores unaccounted for[66]
  • 1906 Atlantic City train wreck, Atlantic City, New Jersey; 53 killed. Resulted in what is likely the first known press release by a private entity[67]
  • 1906 Woodville Train Wreck, Porter County, Indiana; at least 48 confirmed killed plus many missing and at least 81 confirmed injured[68]
  • 1906 Washington, D.C., train wreck; 53 killed plus 70 injured. Led to a complete U.S. ban on wooden coach construction; the accident is notoriously described in Frank Kuntz's book Undergraduate Days 1904-1908[69]
  • 1907 Southern Pacific Sunset Express derailment, Colton, California; 24 killed[70]
  • 1907 Pere Marquette Railway wreck, Salem, Michigan; 31 killed plus 101 injured. Michigan's deadliest rail disaster[71]
  • 1907 Boston & Maine collision, Canaan, New Hampshire; 25 killed plus 25 injured. New Hampshire's deadliest rail disaster to date[72]
  • 1908 Metz Fire and derailment, Metz Township, Michigan; 26 killed[73][74]
  • 1909 The Chicago Lake Shore and South Bend Railway wreck, Porter County, Indiana; 12-14 killed plus ~40 injured[75]
  • 1909 Southern Railway derailment, Reedy Fork threstle, North Carolina; 14 killed plus 25 injured[76]

1910s

  • 1910 FW&WV (Indiana Railroad) collision, Kingsland, Indiana; 35-40 killed. Worst interurban Trolley disaster in U.S history[77][78]
  • 1910 Wellington avalanche, Wellington, Washington; 96 killed. The worst avalanche in U.S. history destroyed two trains and a rail depot[79][80]
  • 1910 Green Mountain train wreck, Green Mountain, Iowa; 52 killed plus scores injured. Remains the state of Iowa's deadliest rail disaster to date[81][82]
  • 1910 Grand Trunk collision, Durand, Michigan; 18+ killed[83]
  • 1911 Indianola train wreck, McCook, Nebraska; 18 killed plus 32 injured. Nebraska's deadliest rail disaster to date[84][85]
  • 1911 Federal Express (train) wreck, Bridgeport, Connecticut; 14 killed. Train was transporting the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team[86][87]
  • 1912 Corning train wreck, Corning (Gibson), New York; 39 killed plus 88 injured. Strongly encouraged use of automatic block signaling and led to mandatory use of steel coaches for high speed passenger rail service[88]
  • 1912 Ligonier Valley Railroad Wilpen disaster, Wilpen Fairgrounds, Pennsylvania; 26 killed plus 29 injured[89][90]
  • 1913 Bar Harbor Express-White Mountain Express collision, New Haven, Connecticut; 21 killed[91]
  • 1914 Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad/Kansas City Southern Railway collision, Tipton Ford, Missouri; 43 killed plus 38 injured. Possibly Missouri's deadliest rail disaster to date[92][93]
  • 1916 Summer Street Bridge disaster, Boston, Massachusetts; 46 killed. Deadliest disaster in Boston's history up to that point and still remains the city's deadliest transport-oriented disaster.
  • 1917 Frisco collision, Kellyville, Oklahoma; 23 killed along with many cattle plus 80 injured. Remains the state of Oklahoma's deadliest rail disaster to date[94]
  • 1917 Shepherdsville train wreck, Shepherdsville, Kentucky; ~50 killed. Remains the state of Kentucky's deadliest rail disaster to date[95][96]
  • 1918 Hammond Circus Train Wreck, Gary/Hammond, Indiana; 86 killed plus 127 injured. Remains Indiana's deadliest rail disaster to date[97]
  • 1918 Great train wreck of 1918, Nashville, Tennessee; 101 killed plus 171 injured. Officially the deadliest U.S. rail disaster to date[98][99]
  • 1918 Malbone Street Wreck, New York City; 95-100 killed plus 100+ injured. Remains the deadliest rail disaster in the History of New York state and the New York City Subway[100][101]
  • 1919 New York Central collision, Byron, New York; 22 killed[102][103]
  • 1919 Onawa train wreck, Onawa, Maine; 23 killed plus 50 injured. Maine's deadliest rail disaster to date[104]

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

  • 1970 Crescent City Train Derailment, Crescent City, Illinois; 0 killed but 60 firefighters and civilians were injured. The accident was caused by an overheated wheel bearing on the 20th car of the train, leading to the breaking of the L-4 journal. This caused the truck to side to drop and the leaving wheels to derail. The derailment triggered a series of explosions of propane tank cars, resulting in injuries and significant property damage.
  • 1971 Salem, Illinois, derailment; 11 killed plus 163 injured. Led the NTSB to recommended improvements in wheel-slip detection devices for locomotives and in pre-departure testing procedures, and that the FRA draft safety standards to address the ejection of passengers through windows in the event of accidents[187][188][189]
  • 1972 Gilchrest Road, New York crossing accident; 5 killed plus 46 injured. Led the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to require all bus drivers complete a certain amount of requirements to qualify for driving[190][191]
  • 1972 Chicago commuter rail crash, Chicago, Illinois; 45 killed plus hundreds injured[192][193][194]
  • 1973 Littlefield, Texas bus/train crash; 7 killed plus 16 injured[195][196]
  • 1973 Roseville Yard Disaster, Roseville, California, Antelope, California; 0 killed but 43 injured. The disaster was caused by a fire in a military boxcar carrying high explosive aircraft ammunition. this fire was likely ignited by overheated brakes on the train, possibly due to a "hotbox" (overheated wheel bearing) as the train descended from the Sierra Nevada mountains. The fire then detonated the bombs within the boxcar, triggering a chain reaction of explosions across multiple boxcars.
  • 1974 Decatur tank car explosion, Decatur, Illinois; 7 killed plus hundreds injured[197][198]
  • 1976 Beckemeyer train accident, 12 killed and four injured.
  • 1976 New Canaan Branch collision, New Canaan, Connecticut; 2 killed plus 29 injured[186][199]
  • 1977 Chicago Loop derailment, Chicago, Illinois; 11 killed plus 180+ injured. Led the CTA to forbid motormen to proceed past a red signal "on sight" without first getting permission from the Control Center[200][201]
  • 1978 Waverly, Tennessee, tank car explosion; 16 killed plus 43 injured. Resulted in a major rework of how authorities deal with such hazmat disasters, with Tennessee/TOCD creating a set of standards and the Tennessee Hazardous Materials Institute for training hazmat responders; was also one of the events that helped push the establishment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)[202][203][204]
  • 1979 Southwest Limited (predecessor to the Southwest Chief) derailment, Lawrence, Kansas; 2 killed plus 69 injured[205][206]
  • 1979 Harvey, Illinois train collision; 2 killed plus 38 injured. Revealed grave deficiencies in railroad operations that had subsided in the US by the late 1970s[207][208]
  • 1979 Philadelphia Conrail collision, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1 killed plus hundreds injured[209][210]

1980s

  • 1982 Washington Metro train derailment, Washington, DC; 3 killed plus 25 injured. First fatal accident involving passengers on WMATA[211][212]
  • 1984 Montrealer (train) derailment, Williston, Vermont; 5 killed plus 100+ injured. Death toll was low as a result of one of the quickest rescue efforts in U.S. history[213][214][215]
  • 1985 Westminster Train Collision, Westminster, Colorado; 5 killed (crew members) 0 injured (uninjured). The incident was caused by a failure of the crew of the southbound train to correctly interpret train orders and subsequently depart before the superior northbound train had cleared the section of track. This led to two Burlington Northern freight trains to collide head-on at high speed under an overpass in Westminster, Colorado.
  • 1987 Maryland train collision, Chase, Maryland; 16 killed plus 164 injured. Led to complete overhaul of (and introduction of newly strict) drug/alcohol testing standards for all rail (and other transportation) employees in the U.S.[216][217][218]
  • 1988 Thompsontown Train Collision, Thompsontown, Pennsylvania; 4 killed (crew members) 2 injured. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other sources, one of the trains, a Conrail coal train (UBT-506), ran a stop signal and collided head-on with a Conrail piggyback trailer train (TV-61). The NTSB investigated the accident and concluded that the crew's attention to the signals was most likely reduced by fatigue.
  • 1989 San Bernardino train disaster, San Bernardino, California; 6 killed plus 7 injured. The incident was actually two linked events, with one occurring during the cleanup of the original derailment[219][220]

1990s

  • 1990 Market–Frankford Line subway derailment, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 4 killed plus 162 injured[221][222][223]
  • 1991 Dunsmuir, California derailment; no human deaths but vast numbers of aquatic animals poisoned to death by chemical leak[224][225][226]
  • 1991 Lugoff derailment in South Carolina; 8 killed, 76 injured[227]
  • 1991 Union Square derailment, New York City; 5 killed plus 161 injured[228][229][230]
  • 1992 Nemadji River bridge derailment, Superior, Wisconsin; no direct human deaths but many animals—wild and domestic—confirmed killed by chemical leak; 50,000 to 80,000 people evacuated from Superior and from Duluth, Minnesota[231][232][233][234]
  • 1993 Big Bayou Canot rail accident, Mobile, Alabama; 47 killed plus 103 injured. Alabama's deadliest rail disaster to date[235][236][237]
  • 1993 Kelso Train Collision, Kelso, Washington; 5 killed plus 0 injuries. The accident was caused by the southbound Burlington Northern crew apparently missing a crucial signal. Although the signal system and train brakes were functioning properly, and the locomotive's "black box" indicated the crew was awake and operating controls up until the collision, the train passed two restrictive signals without emergency braking being applied before the collision. This caused the Burlington Northern freight train to collide head-on with a Union Pacific freight train.
  • 1994 Cajon Pass Runaway, Cajon Pass, California; 0 killed but 2 injured. The incident was caused by a blockage in the air hose and several braking failures on several container cars on an intermodal train. This caused a Santa Fe intermodal train to rear end a parked Union Pacific coal train at milepost 61.55 below the California State 138 overpass in Cajon Junction, on Cajon Pass, California. This caused a major derailment and fire.
  • 1995 Palo Verde, Arizona, derailment, Palo Verde, Arizona; 1 killed plus 78 injured. The derailment was caused by sabotage, the perpetrators are unknown. however, a rail was shifted out of place on purpose, causing Amtrak's Sunset Limited to pass over it and derail on a bridge.
  • 1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision, Fox River Grove, Illinois; 7 killed plus 21 injured[238][239][240]
  • 1996 Cajon Pass Runaway, Cajon Pass, California; 2 killed plus 1 injured. The runaway was caused by a blockage in the air hose throughout several cars on the train, this caused the Santa Fe manifest train to go out of control and crash off a curve in Cajon Junction, On Cajon Pass, California. This caused a dangerous fire with chemicals creating the risk of a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE).
  • 1996 Secaucus train collision, Secaucus, New Jersey; 3 killed plus 162 injured[241][242]
  • 1996 Maryland train collision, Silver Spring, Maryland; 11 killed plus 26 injured[243][244][245]
  • 1996 Weyauwega, Wisconsin, derailment, Weyauwega, Wisconsin; 0 killed but 1,700 evacuated. The derailment was caused by a broken rail that wasn't fixed by workers, this caused an 81-car Wisconsin Central freight train to derail in Weyauwega, Wisconsin which created the risk of a BLEVE. This resulted into all 1,700 residents of the town being evacuated.
  • 1997 Kingman Derailment, Kingman, Arizona; 0 killed but 183 (10 Amtrak employees and 173 passengers) were injured. The derailment was caused by the displacement of the track on a bridge due to erosion and scouring of the bridge's inadequately protected shallow foundations during a severe flash flood from a storm. More specifically, what caused it was flash flood, bridge failure and track displacement. This caused Amtrak's Southwest Chief #4 to cross the weakened bridge at 90 mph and derail.
  • 1999 Bourbonnais, Illinois, train crash; 11 killed plus 122 injured[246][247][248]
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21st century

2000s

2010s

2020s

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See also

References

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