Kamensk-Shakhtinsky rail disaster

The railway accident Kamensk- Schachtinski was the collision of a heavy locomotive at high speed to a stationary passenger train in the station of Kamensk- Schachtinski on 7 August 1987.

Starting position

The passenger train No. 335, on the road from Rostov-on- Don to Moscow with ten cars, sailed at the time of the accident to the Soviet Southeastern Railway belonging route (later the North Caucasian railway pass ) in a northerly direction and approached the city Kamensk- the Kamenskaja Station Schachtinski.

He was followed on the same track, a 5500 -ton, coming from Bataisk freight train, the grain was loaded from the Kuban. He was pulled by a locomotive of ВЛ80с series, which consisted of three mutually coupled units.

Circumstances of the accident

The staff of the freight train had before Lichowskoi ( station: Lichaja ) noted south of Kamensk, a defective brake clutch and therefore closed the shut-off valves behind the sixth of 55 freight cars. This meant that the rear 49 cars could no longer be held back. In Lichaja new staff took over the train, but was not informed of the defective braking system. Since the track was heavily loaded freight train should follow the recently pre- driven passenger train at a short distance. In the rush a brake test was inadequately or not carried out at the dispatch of the train. The driver had not noticed before on the long downhill section after Kamenskaja where he could not prevent the gradual acceleration of the permitted 65 km / h to over 100 km / h, the brake did not work. The emergency brake had no effect. He informed about the train radio to station staff in the station of Kamensk- Schachtinski.

Since all tracks of the station were occupied - some with wagons which had dangerous chemicals loaded - hit the Dispatcher the decision to drive through the passenger train No. 335 without stopping. He was the passenger but by radio not reach, because its train radio had failed. Therefore, the passenger train runs regularly held at 1:28 clock in the station of Kamensk- Schachtinski. The officer on duty at the station showed the train driver immediately verbally, continue. But that failed because travelers had already started getting off a train conductor and in ignorance of the situation at start of turn - correctly - pulled the emergency brake.

When riding the freight train through the crossovers of the station head the coupling between cars and locomotive tore. The cars derailed and plunged down an embankment. The heavy locomotive but remained in the track and crashed with 140 km / h on the end of the passenger train. The last three cars were completely destroyed.

Follow

106 people died and about 100 were also injured. One worker died in the cleanup by an electric shock.

The two railway workers who had had to perform final brake test on the freight train, were sentenced in the following criminal proceedings to twelve years in prison.