Granville railway disaster
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The Granville railway disaster occurred on January 18, 1977 at Granville, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, and is Australia's worst railway disaster to date.
The crowded 6.09 a.m. commuter train from Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to Sydney left the rails and hit a row of supports of an overhead road bridge constructed from concrete and steel. The derailed engine car and carriages one and two passed the bridge. The locomotive and carriage one broke free from the other carriages, hitting a metal pole, which tore through carriage one killing eight passengers. The remaining carriages ground to a halt with carriage two clear of the bridge, and the rear two-thirds of carriage three and forward third of carriage four under it. With its supports demolished, the bridge and several motor cars on top of it crashed down onto carriages three and four, crushing them and the passengers inside.
In all 83 people died and more than 200 were badly injured. Many of those who died were killed instantly when the bridge crushed them in their seats. The passengers killed were all in carriages one, three and four. Incredibly, some of the survivors were in the carriages crushed by the bridge and saw people one seat ahead killed. The train driver and the secondman, and the motorists on the bridge all survived. There were also a number of people trapped in the train for hours after the accident by part of the bridge crushing a limb or torso. Many of these people were conscious and lucid talking to rescuers, but died of crush syndrome soon after the crushing weight was removed from their bodies due to the sudden release of toxins having built up in the limb suddenly overloading the kidneys. This resulted in changes to rescue procedures for these kinds of accidents.
Many police officers who attended the scene never received appropriate counselling after cleaning up after the horrific accident.
An Australian movie made in 1998, The Day of the Roses, follows the coronial investigation. Coroner Tom Weir was corresponding with Beyond Television Productions about the pressure applied on him during inquest into the disaster before his sudden death from bowel cancer in 1996.
The Day of the Roses television production detailed many courageous Australians who risked their lives to save innocent victims. The outpouring of sorrow and ongoing memory of that day lives on by the annual dropping of roses from the bridge site.
Whilst the coroner did not live to see the Day of the Roses, his decision recommending a major rail upgrade was his lasting legacy.
Aftermath
The bridge was rebuilt as a single span without any intermediate support piers. Other bridges similar to the destroyed bridge had their piers reinforced.
The inquiry to the accident found that the primary cause of the crash was "the very unsatisfactory condition of the permanent way", being the poor fastening of the track, causing the track to spread and allowing left front wheel of the locomative to come off the rail. How this happened was related to the high turnover of staff combined with a lack of standard procedures for track inspections. The posted limit for the track was not shown to be too high, provided appropriate track inspection and maintenance was occurring.
The disaster triggered substantial increases in rail maintenance expenditure, and almost 30 years later stands as a reminder in the Australian psyche of what can happen if safety is neglected.
Similar accidents
The Eschede train disaster in Germany had a similar collapse of its bridge.See also
External links
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