Tangiwai disaster
1953 railway accident in New Zealand / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Tangiwai train disaster was a deadly railway accident that occurred at 10:21 p.m. on 24 December 1953, when a railway bridge over the Whangaehu River collapsed beneath an express passenger train at Tangiwai, North Island, New Zealand. The locomotive and the first six carriages derailed into the river, killing 151 people. The subsequent board of inquiry found that the accident was caused by the collapse of the tephra dam holding back nearby Mount Ruapehu's crater lake, creating a rapid mudflow (lahar) in the Whangaehu River, which destroyed one of the bridge piers at Tangiwai only minutes before the train reached the bridge. The volcano itself was not erupting at the time. The disaster remains New Zealand's worst rail accident.
Tangiwai train disaster | |
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Details | |
Date | December 24, 1953; 70 years ago (1953-12-24) 22:21 NZDT |
Location | Whangaehu River Bridge, Tangiwai, North Island |
Coordinates | 39°27′51″S 175°34′36″E |
Country | New Zealand |
Line | North Island Main Trunk |
Operator | New Zealand Railways Department |
Incident type | Locomotive Train Derailment |
Cause | Bridge collapse due to lahar from Mount Ruapehu |
Statistics | |
Trains | 1 |
Passengers | 285 |
Deaths | 151 |
List of rail accidents in New Zealand |