Tsurumi rail accident

In the railway accident in Yokohama (Japanese鹤 见 事故, Tsurumi jiko ) drove on 9 November 1963 in Yokohama Tsurumi between the stations and Shin- Koyasu on the Tōkaidō Main Line two passenger trains into a previously derailed freight train.

Starting position

The multi-track route was operated by the Japanese National Railways ( JNR ).

The accident

In a moving to Tokyo, very long freight train derailed at about 60 km / h, 43 to 45 cars and came here in the clearance profile of an adjacent track the opposite direction. Why the cars derailed, could not immediately be determined. Both the railway infrastructure, as well as the freight cars seemed technically ok.

An electric railcars, who was traveling in the direction of Tokyo drove, only seconds later in the derailed freight cars. The railcar derailed and also tipped in the fourth and fifth cars of a third, twelve cars long train, who was also in the direction of Tokyo on the go.

Follow

In this accident, 162 people died and another 120 were injured.

The unexplained derailment led to years of trying the Japan Railways (JR) 1967-1972 on a disused section of the Nemuro Main Line in Hokkaido, was rebuilt on the site of the accident and traveled under experimental conditions identical vehicles. Result was that the freight cars derailed probably from a combination of causes. At the accident, the construction and the degree of wear of the chassis and the track geometry at the accident site had contributed.

As a consequence of the traditional visual inspection was abandoned as the monitoring and measuring of the track cables were introduced, were able to analyze the behavior of the track even when the vehicle load.

Next worth knowing

Only one and a half years earlier there had been a serious rail accident in the railway accident Mikawashima on May 3, 1962 which expired quite similar. However, the initially derailed freight train had a " stop" signal at danger passed.