1981 Chengdu-Kunming Railway Train Crash

The railway accident on the Liziyida Bridge on July 9, 1981, the most consequential railway accident in the history of China. With a bridge collapse at least 200 people died.

Starting position

Train No. 442 was of Geliping to Chengdu on the go. Most recently, he had kept at the station of Niri and had left there at 1:41. Niri is located on the Chengdu - Kunming railway in the district ganluo in the Chinese province of Sichuan. This led the route in the mountains over the Liziyida, a tributary of the Dadu He. Before the railroad reached the steel bridge on concrete piers, they ran through a mountain ledge in Nainaibao tunnel, which had a slope of 14 ‰.

Circumstances of the accident

During the night a mudslide slipped through the gorge of Liziyida. This ripped off the 17 -meter-high, 110 meters long railway bridge over the Liziyida. One minute after the train had left the station Niri, was the telephone connection to the nearest train station, Wusi, interrupted when the Dispatcher of Niri his colleagues there wanted to share with the departure of the train: The mudslide had interrupted the telephone line.

At 1:45, the train at 40 km / h in the Nainaibao tunnel. This had a slight curvature. After he had crossed the curvature, the engineer noticed in the headlights, that a building had collapsed at the tunnel exit and the reflection of the headlight on the rails in front of him abruptly broke off. He immediately initiated an emergency stop, but could not bring to a stop the train before the stretch over the previously led the bridge. At 01:47, the train in the gap. The locomotive, baggage car and a passenger car crashed from. The next strongest cars derailed still in the tunnel and then tipped off to.

Follow

More than 200 passengers and railway employees (according to another source: 360) died or were permanently missing, whose bodies were probably washed away by the river. In addition, 146 people were injured.

It took until July 24 to accommodate the Rail on a makeshift bridge. Subsequently, the section was replaced by a bypass tunnel, which was taken in May 1984 in operation. The Nainaibao tunnel and the temporary bridge were shut down.