Newark Bay rail accident

In the railway accident at the Newark Bay, New Jersey, crashed on 15 September 1958, the front part of a suburban train from a raised lift bridge, the Newark Bay Bridge, in the Newark Bay.

Starting position

The local train No. 3314 was a commuter train to the Central Railroad of New Jersey ( CRRNJ ), first class, which was pulled by two diesel locomotives, and the remainder consisted of four passenger cars and a luggage car. In the first chariot were no travelers.

At about 9 clock in the morning the train approached the western head of the Newark Bay Bridge. This linked the city Elizabeth and Bayonne, both of New Jersey, on the Newark Bay. The drawbridge was raised to allow boat traffic to pass. She was backed up for trains with two distant signals and a main signal, which were located at a distance of about 1200 m, 400 m and 150 m before the bridge. Immediately after the last signal, there was a derailment on the signals controlled switch which, the signals blocked the passage, was automatically set to " derail ".

The accident

The train went past the two distant signals and, instead of to reduce his speed, he increased it even slightly, as was observed at the later salvaged tachograph. He then drove the " stop" pointing main signal at about 70 km / h Then derailed the train derailment on the switch. Because of its undiminished speed but the Durchrutschweg was not long enough so that the two locomotives and the first two cars plunged into the Newark Bay and went immediately. The third car stopped at the bridge edge hang first, towered over them, the front part of the car was already in the water. For this car, all travelers could save. He plunged two hours later also still in the bay.

Follow

44 people who were in the submerged car and on the locomotives, died, including the locomotive staff, the train driver and the front brakeman. 48 people were also injured.

The accident was the subject of three independent studies: Due to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC ), the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities ( authority to monitor public technical institutions of the State of New Jersey) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

As the team perished on the locomotives, the cause of the accident was never clarified. A sudden onset of health problem the engineer was suspected. However, the autopsy revealed that the engineer had drowned, that was still alive when the locomotive went down. Unexplained was why the second man did not intervene on the locomotive. All technical systems were intact, both the brake system of the train as well as the signals.

All three studies came too the conclusion that the lack of a safety control mechanism ( Totmanntaste ) contributed significantly to the accident. The New Jersey Public Utilities Commission committed in consequence all railway companies to use only locomotives for passenger trains, which were equipped accordingly. The railway company countered that all locomotives were always occupied by two men and the second man was able to perform an emergency stop always when the engineer failed.

The locomotives were salvaged, repaired and put back into service. The bridge was still in use until 1978 and was the 1987/88 demolished because it was an obstacle to shipping.