The Worst Train Accidents In Victorian History

train accidents a big part of a train system's history ever so memorable and tragic the victorian train system is no different with bridge collapsions floods derailments and crashes seen all over the state in over 175 years of service from the first accident in 1857 to the 2020 derailment at wallam let's look at some of victoria's worst train accidents the north geelong train accident in 1857 is believed to be the earliest known trend accident in australia in the morning of the 25th of june in 1857 the inaugural train of the geelong and melbourne railway company left geelong for newport a mere six kilometers in the locomotive superintendent was knocked off the train underneath the underpass at the now princess highway and was fatally injured the cause of the fall is unknown however it was the first of many fatal accidents to occur all over the state [Music] on the 30th of august in 1881 at jolymont the first multiple death accident occurred the accident was roughly located around the jolymon yards and involved a train from brighton and a devastating derailment the 854 express from brighton was almost at its destination of linda street when one of its steel tires on the fourth car broke this caused five of the nine train carriages to derail three of which careered off the tracks and stacked upon each other the fourth car was completely crushed and of the 120 people involved 39 were injured and four were killed [Music] at sunshine station on the 20th of april in 1908 a 44 death crash occurred today it's the deadliest train crash in victorian history and the second in australia behind the granville disaster on easter monday in 1908 two loaded passenger trains one from bendigo and one from ballarat left for melbourne 45 minutes apart arriving at sunshine the ballarat train was 43 minutes late and way too long for the suburban platform front half of the train was allowed to disembark before the train moved forward for the back half the bendigo train also running late was told to run express to southern cross at water gardens 12 kilometers from sunshine the bendigo train was given the all clear and the long train did not reach a danger signal until less than 900 metres away from sunshine at this stage the brakes had no effect and the driver had to resort to setting the locomotive to reverse but the stage was set for a horrible crash with the ballarat train just departing sunshine the benigo train crashed through destroying the ballarat's guards van and four rare most carriages throwing debris across tracks and platforms a gas fire delayed vital recovery works and after all was resolved more than 400 people were injured and 44 killed almost all from the ballarat train in the thick fog of a tuesday morning on the 18th of july in 1910 richmond station was the site of a dreadful crash involving two sandringham line trains a brighton train was well behind schedule and had just pulled into the station an el cinwick train on the same line came out of the fog to see the back of the brighton train and with no time to stop it tunneled through one carriage from each train were telescoped crushing the passengers inside as the fog cleared help was soon at hand but nine people died with over a hundred more injured it is believed to be the first australian rail accident recorded on film and it was certainly one of the worst on a peaceful monday night on the 23rd of march in 1925 eight people were headed to a charity event but never reached their destination in their old ford the group headed for wickham road level crossing 500 meters north of hyatt station the level crossing is shaped like a roundabout with wickham and worthing roads intersecting with the tracks struggling up the slight incline the car approached the crossing at walking pace and the gatekeeper opened the crossing gates but forgot to set the danger signal for the trains at this point a parcel train coming from the city was less than 500 meters away and was not looking to stop going 39 miles an hour and so with no danger signal the train kept going and the car kept slowing edging to the other side but at 8 25 pm the train plowed through the struggling car killing all eight of the ford's passengers an eighty-year-old plaque stands in modonga to commemorate 25 army servicemen who were killed riding a bus over a level crossing driving to albury from the army barracks in bernegola eight kilometers east the bus met the talongato level crossing at 6 30 pm but so did steam locomotive a2 863 despite bystanders attempts of warning the bus of an uncoming train it began to cross and was smashed from the side of the 35 passengers 25 were killed in what is still australia's worst rail road level crash a nearby memorial commemorates the soldiers lost which is a beautiful gesture for such a sad event the wodonga historical society meets every month to commemorate and i would like to thank them for their assistance as well on the 24th of february in 1951 at horsham a tourist bus was on a journey from adelaide to sydney carrying 23 people bus met the dumbulla road level crossing at 3 50 pm and was set to stop for an oncoming goods train rattling along but all of a sudden the bus lurched forward in an attempt to rush to the other side and this caused the awful catastrophe that followed the buffers of the goods train hit the bus dead center and dragged it along 50 meters this caused a crush inside the bus putting all the passengers inside at risk resulting in 12 deaths and the rest of the passengers injured another beautiful memorial was erected and the town of horsham will forever mourn on the 1st of june in 1952 only one year after the horsham tragedy another bus was called out this time at the notorious boronia level crossing 26 years before in 1926 another bus crush occurred killing nine people with picnickers returning home from furniture gully another one occurred in 1944 when five people were killed when a car was crushed by a train but this time in 1952 it was a church bus carrying 30 teenagers it was crossing the tracks when an electric train traveling to melbourne drove straight into the bus tearing into its side the train crushed the bus like a concertina dragging at 50 yards practically cutting the bus in half nine people died and 20 were injured in what is the second worst level crossing accident in victoria behind the wadunga crash the notorious level crossing that killed over 20 people was removed in 1996 and hopefully we never see accidents there again just over 50 years ago on the 7th of february in 1969 the crash also known as the southern aurora disaster occurred due to the single track along the line in 1969 the southern aurora from sydney was set to cross a goods train at banala because both trains were running late this crossing was moved to violet town all was normal until shortly after vanilla when a signal to slow the train was ignored unfortunately it turns out it wasn't ignored the driver had just died of a heart attack and the southern aurora going at 110 kilometers an hour was out of control heading straight towards an unsuspecting goods train all attempts to slow the train failed and just before 7 am by passing the violet town crossing loop the southern aurora smashed into the goods train creating a scene for the ages several carriages locomotives and wagons were propelled into the air but the bulk of the damage caused to the southern aurora with six carriages derailing and one completely crushed fires caused by spilling fuel did not help the 100 firefighters and the aftermath of the devastating crash was nine deaths and 117 injuries in 2019 the memorial was rejuvenated in time for the 50 year anniversary and is a peaceful pretty place i would love to visit it one day oh and it even has an old southern aurora carriage not from the crash but a very nice old silver one the crash will be remembered for many decades to come and the quiet sleepy violet town will always remember the southern aurora disaster on the 5th of june in 2007 an accident involving a truck resulted in another level crossing crash what happened well a v-loan service to melbourne was rolling along at 100 kilometers an hour heading towards the murray valley highway crossing the site of a fatal crash 12 years earlier in 1995. a truck heading to south australia with timber and pipe fittings was also headed for the crossing oblivious of the flashing lights and bells warning of the oncoming train as n460 and its three carriages passed over the crossing the truck swerved to miss the first carriage but plowed into the second and third causing severe damage to the carriages and the people inside with 11 deaths and 23 injuries it was a catastrophic crash all because of a truck driver's error the latest fatal accident as of this video's release was caused by a severe derailment on the 20th of february in 2020 heading for melbourne a mere 45 kilometers away an xpt train from sydney was running two hours behind schedule mainly due to ongoing faults along the north east line and a signal heart at wallon destroyed in a fire a week before these faults caused confusion for trains and whether or not they would pass through wallen or around the adjacent passing loop this may have been the reason for the xpt train going over the junction at more than 100 kilometers over the speed limit this caused the leading power car 2018 and five carriages to derail with carriages everywhere the scene was a mess and after many airlifts to the royal melbourne hospital two people died the driver and the co-driver with 39 passengers injured with 158 people on board this accident could have been worse but let's hope we don't see anything like this ever again i would like to pay my respects and condolences to anyone involved or affected by these accidents i am very sorry for your losses thank you guys for watching this video like and subscribe if you did enjoy and as always comment any feedback or video suggestions down below i would just like to say thank you to these people especially michael sainsbury for all of your help in making this video i really appreciate it this has been the train man and until next time goodbye

Channel: The Train Man

Views: 38,574

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Id: iLQ1AcLUOuU

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020