http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives/2004/en/wmv/subways19950813et1.wmv

In 1995, 2 Toronto TTC trains crashed in rush hour and 3 women were killed. The worst accident ever to happen. Before the accident, this system was deemed the one of the world's safest subway systems.

Post your cities...

BART (http://www.bart.gov) had a fire in the transbay tube in 1979. One fireman was killed due to smoke inhalation. No accidents since.

most dangerous: Nyc
safest: Tokyo

most dangerous: Nyc
safest: Tokyo

And Nyc Subway is most dangerous why?
You can't just say that unless you have witnessed something while using it. And Btw the thread is about the worst accidents to occur in the subway where you live. Not which ones you think are the most dangerous.

NY had a couple of accidents lately though didn't they?

other than a couple of people committing suicide, I don't think any major accidents have ever happened in Lisbon.

Philadelphia's worst subway accident occurred on March 7,1990 when a traction motor detatched from the undercarriage of a Budd built M-3 car on the Market-Frankford El, causing the train to derail.

Four people aboard the train were killed when the tunnel support beams split the cars open.

Most of NYC's accident are cause by riders. Sorry to say.

New York's worst subway accident:
11/01/1918 - A dispatcher, filling in for striking motormen, loses control while entering the tunnel at Malbone Street (Empire Boulevard) and 97 are killed, with 200 injured. (The worst accident in subway history.) The Malbone Street Wreck.

New York's most recent accident resulting in death (obviously not including people jumping in front of trains etc.):
06/05/1995 - A Manhattan-bound J train driven by a motorman on his final run of an overnight shift slammed into the rear of a M train stopped on the Williamsburg Bridge, killing the motorman, injuring more than 50 passengers. Investigators conclude that the J train ran a red light at high speed, and that the spacing of signals and poor performance of the trains brakes contributed to the crash.

http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/accidents.html

Anyone know the deadliest (if any) railway accident in Hong Kong? Of course, excluding suicides.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid168/pc1fedaff28924620d3a30c60047680ea/f42d40f3.jpg[/IMG] http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid168/p41c803fa3529a77188026a9e683a2fac/f42d40f1.jpg[/IMG]
Kings Cross london 33 people died most of them firemen cause unknown think may of been cigarette

btw that is a station fire that caused the problem. It orriginated under an esculator - possibly from a cigerette getting thrown to the floor.

More recently there was a crash on the Central Line, which closed that line for several months. 32 people were injured when a train carrying 800 passengers jumped the tracks and hit a wall at Chancery Lane station.

Anyone know the deadliest (if any) railway accident in Hong Kong? Of course, excluding suicides.

I dont think there was any major accidents in HK resulting in death. I know there there was a drunk man back in December 2004 that caused a train to caught fire while going from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui. No one was killed or seriously hurt.

It's not my city...but...I've got one for Chitown:

On February 4, 1977 the worst accident in "L" history occurred at the sharp curve on the Loop elevated at Wabash Avenue and Lake Street. The motorman of an Oak Park-bound Lake-Dan Ryan train had just made the normal stop at Randolph/Wabash and failed to trust that, as the result of a delay, there was a Ravenswood train stopped just ahead at State/Lake, despite the what his automatic cab signal system told him. He proceeded under 15 mph (thus overriding the automatic braking that would normally occur when disobeying a cab signal), ramming the Ravenswood train. Worse yet, he reapplied power against the immovable train while on a 100 ft. radius curve, causing the cars the buckle, lift up and three of them to fall off the tracks while a fourth hung off the structure, still coupled to the rear four cars. Eleven people died (the headline's number was later revised) and over 180 were injured

On August 10, 1903: Station "Couronnes" of the Parisian metro, 84 people died (Fire in a train, toxic smoke...)

Since then, no major accident: Paris' subway is quite safe...

Last year a plastic bag fell on the tracks in the Copenhagen Metro, stopping the whole system. Not really an accident, but I think that's almost impossible. The system will simply shut down if anything happens, though, of course something could happen

On March 26, 1985 a train running on Buenos Aires subway line D between stations Plaza Italia and Scalabrini Ortiz derailed and crashed into a wall killing 4 people

I think it was the one involving a motorman negotiating an underground garage here who ended up crashing and dying in the resultant fire that burned too intense to approach for a period of many hours -- 28 cars were lost.

Cheers,
Chris

I dont think there was any major accidents in HK resulting in death. I know there there was a drunk man back in December 2004 that caused a train to caught fire while going from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui. No one was killed or seriously hurt.

wasn't it when it was crossing the harbor from TST to Admiralty?

In vancouver, i have known two incidents a few years ago, it was about people falling into the tracks... and i think one of the two accidents, happened in Stadium Station

Toronto's Russel Hill subway crash is the deadliest of accidents, but the worst accident in Toronto's subway IMO is the great fire that originated somewhere near the Greenwood Yard. Tires or something rubber caught fire and the non-stop tunnels between the west side of Victoria Park subway station and the Bloor Viaduct West of Broadview subway station were completely flooded with smoke. Broadview and Victoria Park might have been confused for an incinerator considering the volume of smoke bursting out of their underground-surface transitions, the whole system was shut down just as rush hour's peak was in effect. Across the eastern half of the city, the numerous subway vents in the sidewalks became black towers visible from some distance. The system was miraculously running on schedule the next morning in a very damp condition with lots of soot still visible. The people on the train that got closest to the fire between Donlands and Pape stations were all safely evacuated at Pape. No deaths, some smoke inhalation treatments. My mother just missed that train from Pape station that day as well (she held onto that transfer from Pape for a while).

Tokyo's isn't safest. Last year there was a crash at a level crossing on the Toubu Isesaki line that resulted in death. That's commuter rather than subway, but runs through-service on subway lines. With 2 exceptions, Tokyo's system doesn't use 3rd-rail.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid168/pc1fedaff28924620d3a30c60047680ea/f42d40f3.jpg[/IMG] http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid168/p41c803fa3529a77188026a9e683a2fac/f42d40f1.jpg[/IMG]
Kings Cross london 33 people died most of them firemen cause unknown think may of been cigarette

Most weren't firemen!!! I think only one died of the 31 (not 33) victims.

This wasn't the worst peace-time accident anyway, that was the Moorgate disaster in 1975 when a train failed to stop at the terminus platform and rammed into the dead-end tunnel at 30mph, killing 43. The train 'telescoped' and the front car was crushed to a length of just 3 feet (1m).

By far the worst accident of all was in 1943 at the then unopened Bethnal Green Station during an air raid. As people were flocking into the station to shelter from the raid a woman tripped on the stairs and 173 people were crushed in the resulting stampede.

There was another terrible wartime disaster involving people sheltering from an air raid, I believe it was at Balham in South London. A bomb landed on the main road above the station and penetrated the concourse roof and a sewer, sending millions of gallons of sewerage down the escalators and flooding the platforms, drowing scores of people in sewerage.

Granville railway disaster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_train_disaster

On January 18, 1977, Australia experienced its worst ever railway disaster at Granville, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales.

The crowded 6.09 a.m. commuter train from Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to Sydney left the rails and hit a row of supports of an overhead road bridge constructed from concrete and steel. The derailed engine car and carriages one and two passed the bridge. The locomotive and carriage one broke free from the other carriages, hitting a metal pole, which tore through carriage one killing eight passengers. The remaining carriages ground to a halt with carriage two clear of the bridge, and the rear two-thirds of carriage three and forward third of carriage four under it. With its supports demolished, the bridge and several motor cars on top of it crashed down onto carriages three and four, crushing them and the passengers inside.

In all 83 people died and more than 200 were badly injured. Many of those who died were killed instantly when the bridge crushed them in their seats. The passengers killed were all in carriages one, three and four. Incredibly, some of the survivors were in the carriages crushed by the bridge and saw people one seat ahead killed. The train driver and the secondman, and the motorists on the bridge all survived. There were also a number of people trapped in the train for hours after the accident by part of the bridge crushing a limb or torso. Many of these people were conscious and lucid talking to rescuers, but died of crush syndrome soon after the crushing weight was removed from their bodies due to the sudden release of toxins having built up in the limb suddenly overloading the kidneys. This resulted in changes to rescue procedures for these kinds of accidents.

Many police officers who attended the scene never received appropriate counselling after cleaning up after the horrific accident.

An Australian movie made in 1998, The Day of the Roses, follows the coronial investigation. Coroner Tom Weir was corresponding with Beyond Television Productions about the pressure applied on him during inquest into the disaster before his sudden death from bowel cancer in 1996.

In 2000 a subway on the Hibiya Line in Tokyo swiped a train that had derailed previously, killing 5 people. It was a huge shock to the Japanese, because everyone uses trains daily and there hadn't been an accident for some time.

I don't know of any other subway-specific accidents in Tokyo that resulted in death... of course there was the sarin gas attack by that doomsday cult.

Daegu subway fire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daegu_subway_fire

The Daegu subway fire of February 18, 2003 killed at least 198 people and injured at least 147. An arsonist set fire to a train stopped at the Joongang-ro (or Jungang-ro) station of the Daegu Metropolitan Subway in Daegu, South Korea. The fire then spread to a second train which had entered the station from the opposite direction.

The arsonist was Kim Dae-han, a 56 year-old unemployed former taxi driver who had suffered a stroke in November 2001 that left him partly paralyzed. Kim was dissatisfied with his medical treatment and had expressed sentiments of violence and depression; he later told police he wanted to kill himself, but to do so in a crowded place rather than alone. By most accounts, on the morning of February 18, he boarded train 1079 on Line 1 in the direction of Daegok, carrying a duffle bag which contained two green milk cartons filled with a flammable liquid, possibly paint thinner or gasoline.

As the train left Daegu Yeok station around 9:53 a.m., Kim began fumbling with the cartons and a cigarette lighter, alarming other passengers who tried to stop him. In the struggle, one of the cartons spilled and its liquid contents caught fire as the train pulled into Joongang-ro station in downtown Daegu. Kim, his back and legs on fire, managed to escape along with many passengers on train 1079, but within two minutes the fire had spread to all six cars. The seats and flooring were composed of flammable fiberglass, carbonated vinyl, and polyethylene, and produced thick, chemical smoke as it burned.

The operator of the train failed to notify subway officials immediately of the fire.

Smoke being visible on their closed-circuit television monitors, subway officials radioed the operator of train 1080, Choi Sang-yeol, advising him to proceed with caution because there was a fire in the station. Train 1080 entered Joongang-ro station and stopped alongside blazing train 1079 approximately four minutes later. The doors opened only briefly, then shut, apparently in an effort to keep out the toxic smoke that had filled the station. Shortly after train 1080's arrival, an automatic fire detector shut down the power supply to both trains, preventing train 1080 from leaving the station.

Transcripts show Choi Sang-yeol made three announcements advising passengers in train 1080 to remain seated while he attempted to reach superiors. Finally, he was advised "Quickly, run somewhere else. Go up. . . kill the engine and go." Choi then opened the doors and fled, but in doing so he removed the master key, shutting down the onboard batteries which powered the train doors— effectively sealing passengers inside. Later investigation showed 79 passengers remained trapped inside train 1080 and died there.

Inadequate emergency equipment also worsened the disaster. Daegu subway trains were not equipped with fire extinguishers, and the stations lacked sprinklers and emergency lighting. Many victims became disoriented in the dark, smoke-filled underground station and died of asphyxiation looking for exits. Emergency ventilation systems also proved inadequate. Over 1,300 fire and emergency personnel responded and the fire itself was extinguished around 1:25 p.m.; however, the toxicity of the smoke prevented them from entering the station for another three and a half hours

The intensity of the fire made it difficult to accurately assess the number of victims. Most were burned beyond recognition, many to the bone, and required DNA analysis to identify. A total of 191 bodies were found and identified; 6 additional bodies were found but so thoroughly destroyed that they could not be identified; and one person's possessions were identified but remains could not be located.

As the incident occurred late in the morning rush hour, most of the victims were students or young women who worked in the downtown district's department stores, which opened at 10:30 a.m. Many were able to contact loved ones on their mobile phones, and mobile phone operators released call connection and attempt records to help authorities determine who was in the station.

Toronto's Russel Hill subway crash is the deadliest of accidents, but the worst accident in Toronto's subway IMO is the great fire that originated somewhere near the Greenwood Yard. Tires or something rubber caught fire and the non-stop tunnels between the west side of Victoria Park subway station and the Bloor Viaduct West of Broadview subway station were completely flooded with smoke. Broadview and Victoria Park might have been confused for an incinerator considering the volume of smoke bursting out of their underground-surface transitions, the whole system was shut down just as rush hour's peak was in effect. Across the eastern half of the city, the numerous subway vents in the sidewalks became black towers visible from some distance. The system was miraculously running on schedule the next morning in a very damp condition with lots of soot still visible. The people on the train that got closest to the fire between Donlands and Pape stations were all safely evacuated at Pape. No deaths, some smoke inhalation treatments. My mother just missed that train from Pape station that day as well (she held onto that transfer from Pape for a while).

Tokyo's isn't safest. Last year there was a crash at a level crossing on the Toubu Isesaki line that resulted in death. That's commuter rather than subway, but runs through-service on subway lines. With 2 exceptions, Tokyo's system doesn't use 3rd-rail.

That was in 1997 right? My mother happened to be on the train that got evacuated at Donlands Station. I think it's "exaggerated" that smoke was coming out of every vent between Main and Broadview.

The fire was on the tracks between Greenwood and Donlands and those were mainly the stations that had to have the soot cleaned.

Daegu subway fire

Yes I remember that, it was awful :(

What the hell were they playing at constructing metro cars out of flammable materials though?

Yes I remember that, it was awful :(

What the hell were they playing at constructing metro cars out of flammable materials though?

yeah.. stupidity calls for disasters

Melbourne: 44 killed, over 400 injured.

Purists may discount this, since although it occurred within the Metropolitan area, it involved two "country" trains.

On Easter Monday, April 20th, 1908, the Bendigo to Melbourne train ploughed into the back of the Ballarat to Melbourne train at "Braybrook Junction", about 10 km West of Melbourne. Both trains were full of holiday-makers returning to Melbourne after the Easter holiday. Hence the horrendous loss of life already quoted.

The Ballarat train was stationary at the "Up" platform. The Bendigo train crashed directly into the back of it: the line runs straight for many km back, but it was after dark.

As a result of this, the name "Braybrook Junction" took on a dark shadow in the mind of the community. In consequence, it was renamed "Sunshine".

Do Australians have any understanding as to what a subway is, other than the local shop that makes rolls? That is definitely not a subway accident, nor is the Granville Disaster, although both were bad.

Do Australians have any understanding as to what a subway is, other than the local shop that makes rolls? That is definitely not a subway accident, nor is the Granville Disaster, although both were bad.

Sorry ... I misread the Thread title. :runaway:

The worst subway accident, by far was in Baku in 1994, where a fire killed 300 people...
http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/34_folder/34_articles/34_metro.html

On October 28, 1995, the worst Metro tragedy in world history took place in Baku when fire broke out on a Saturday evening rush hour train. For the majority of the 300 victims, death was swift. Deadly fumes of carbon monoxide poisoning from the burning synthetic materials in the cars overpowered them in a matter of minutes. The impact of the accident stunned the city as the latest in a string of disasters.

[snip]

According to Swedish experts who investigated the Metro accident, the fire started accidentally from an electrical spark in wiring near gears under one of the cars. Since Azerbaijan's Metro is nearly 30 years old, the cars are manufactured from materials that are prone to give off noxious fumes if they catch fire: fully 90 percent of the material is flammable.

http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/34_folder/34_photos/34_099.jpg

That was in 1997 right? My mother happened to be on the train that got evacuated at Donlands Station. I think it's "exaggerated" that smoke was coming out of every vent between Main and Broadview.

The fire was on the tracks between Greenwood and Donlands and those were mainly the stations that had to have the soot cleaned.

Yeah, it was 1997. I wouldn't call it an exageration though, the news showed proof at Vic Park and the viaduct, as well as various shots in between near subway station entrances where vents are most obvious. Woodbine station was very damp with some traces of soot the next morning, so it did spread at least a couple of stations in each direction. The fire wasn't so much on the tracks but from the yard, I heard - remember the access to the Greenwood subway yard is between Donlands and Greenwood, where the trains do a weird hump in opposite directions.

Feb 28 1975 (when I was still living in England) .... the crash at Moorgate that kileld 43 people read here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/28/newsid_2515000/2515033.stm). I remember that after that, it was mandatory for trains to come to a stop before entering the last station on a subway line. This one had crashed into the wall.

[QUOTE=Palal]The worst subway accident, by far was in Baku in 1994, where a fire killed 300 people...
http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/34_folder/34_articles/34_metro.html

On October 28, 1995, the worst Metro tragedy in world history took place in Baku when fire broke out on a Saturday evening rush hour train. For the majority of the 300 victims, death was swift. Deadly fumes of carbon monoxide poisoning from the burning synthetic materials in the cars overpowered them in a matter of minutes. The impact of the accident stunned the city as the latest in a string of disasters.


That must have been really terrible!

Hopefully, over the past decades, some of the Azerbajians's oil revenues have been used to upgrade Baku's public transit.

I was in the subway accident August 11,1995 and actually went to the site two weeks ago to lay flowers as I do every year. To this day I cannot go back on the subway. My son who was 5 at the time along with me were trapped for 3 hours that awful night.

I was in the subway crash in Toronto August 11,1995 and to this day cannot go back on the subway. My son and I were trapped for three hours that night.

http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives/2004/en/wmv/subways19950813et1.wmv

In 1995, 2 Toronto TTC trains crashed in rush hour and 3 women were killed. The worst accident ever to happen. Before the accident, this system was deemed the one of the world's safest subway systems.

Post your cities...
I was in that crash (my son was 5 at the time), we were trapped for 3 hours and to this day I haven't went back on the subway, it was horrible.

The most bizarre (though not the worst) accident I've heard of is one that happened in 1950 on the Wuppertal suspended monorail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_monorail). That metro-like railway runs mostly about 12 meters above the river bed:

A circus that visited the city wanted to make some spectacular advertising for their shows and arranged a ride on the monorail with one of their circus elephants. Once on the train, the elephant became a little nervous, so it broke through the cabin window and fell into the river. The river is very shallow there but magically the elephant did not get injured.

This I guess(I live near Washington DC):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/NTSB_Woodley_Park_Accident.jpg

No one was killed, but it was the most visually shocking as it ahppenned on a station.

More recently there was a crash on the Central Line, which closed that line for several months. 32 people were injured when a train carrying 800 passengers jumped the tracks and hit a wall at Chancery Lane station.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2694361.stm