 | This article may be excessively based on contemporary reporting.(March 2024) |
| Date | December 28, 1966 |
|---|---|
| Time | 12:10 am |
| Location | Everett, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°23′54″N71°02′53″W / 42.39833°N 71.04806°W |
| Cause | Vehicle incursion |
| Deaths | 13 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 21 |
The Everett, Massachusetts train crash was a railway accident that occurred on December 28, 1966, when a train struck a stalled tank truck, killing 13 people.
At 12:10 am, a Boston and Maine Railroad Buddliner traveling from Boston to Rockport struck a stalled tank truck carrying 7,000 gallons of oil at the railroad crossing on 2nd Street in Everett, Massachusetts. The Buddliner's cars quickly became engulfed in flames. Its doors jammed on impact and rescuers were forced to break windows to free passengers. 12 people died from burns or smoke inhalation and another 22 were injured. [1] A thirteenth victim died over a month later. [2]
The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities held joint hearings into the collision. ICC examiner Robert Boyce believed that the Buddliner's doors were responsible for many of the deaths in the accident, stating "I believe more people would have escaped from the train had the door opened outward instead of inward". [3] Following the hearings, the ICC's enforcement division recommended that:
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities blamed the crash on a mechanical defect in the truck's copper right-angle adapter, which became separated, causing the brakes to lose air pressure and triggering the automatic emergency brakes. This issue would not have been detected unless the entire brake system was taken apart. [5] As a result of the investigation, the DPU lowered the speed limit at grade crossings in Everett and Chelsea from 60 mph for passenger trains and 40 mph for freight trains to 35 mph and ordered a reconstruction of the 2nd Street crossing. [5] [6]
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed a loss of air pressure in the truck's brakes for the accident, but found that the truck's brakes complied with regulations. The NTSB's report blamed the deaths on a lack of emergency exits, darkness caused by the failure of the car's lighting system, and the jamming of the inward opening car door. [7]
On March 15, 1999, Amtrak's southbound City of New Orleans passenger train collided with a semi-trailer truck in the village of Bourbonnais, Illinois, United States. Most of the train derailed, killing eleven people. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the accident attributed the cause to the truck driver trying to beat the train across a grade crossing. The NTSB's recommendations from the accident included increased enforcement of grade crossing signals, the installation of train event recorders at all new or improved grade crossings, and procedures to provide emergency responders with accurate lists of all crew members and passengers aboard trains. The city of Bourbonnais erected a memorial near the site to commemorate those killed in the accident.
The 1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision was a grade crossing collision that killed seven students riding aboard a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, on the morning of October 25, 1995. The school bus, driven by a substitute driver, was stopped at a traffic light with the rearmost portion extending onto a portion of the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line train, train 624 en route to Chicago.
On January 4, 1987, two trains collided on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor main line near Chase, Maryland, United States, at Gunpow Interlocking. Amtrak train 94, the Colonial, traveling north from Washington, D.C., to Boston, crashed at over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) into a set of Conrail locomotives running light which had fouled the mainline. Fourteen passengers on the Amtrak train died, as well as the Amtrak engineer and lounge car attendant.
On May 28, 2008, shortly before 6 p.m., two westbound MBTA trains collided on the Green Line D branch between Woodland and Waban stations, behind 56 Dorset Road in Newton, Massachusetts. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) originally found the cause of the accident to be due to the operator texting while driving, but the NTSB later found that the operator of the rear train, Terrese Edmonds, had not been using her cell phone at the time of the crash, but rather went into an episode of micro-sleep, causing her to lose awareness of her surroundings and miss potential hazards up ahead. The collision killed Edmonds, and numerous others were injured. Fourteen passengers were taken to area hospitals; one was airlifted. This crash, along with another similar accident a year later, led the NTSB to set higher standards and regulations regarding the use of cell phones while operating a train.
During the afternoon rush hour of June 22, 2009, a subway train wreck occurred between two southbound Red Line Washington Metro trains in Northeast, Washington, D.C., United States. A moving train collided with a train stopped ahead of it; the train operator along with eight passengers died, and 80 people were injured, making it the deadliest crash in the history of the Washington Metro.
The Rockport train wreck occurred in Rockport in Mansfield Township, New Jersey, United States, about three miles outside of Hackettstown, on June 16, 1925. A violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad (DL&W) train. The crash killed 42 passengers and five crewmen and injured twenty-three others.
The Midland train crash was a rail crossing accident that occurred on November 15, 2012 in Midland, Texas. A freight train struck a flatbed trailer being used as a parade float carrying 26 passengers, killing four and injuring 16. The parade was en route to a veterans' benefit sponsored by the local charity Show of Support/Hunt for Heroes.
The Fairfield/Bridgeport train crash occurred on May 17, 2013, when a Metro-North Railroad passenger train derailed between the Fairfield Metro and Bridgeport stations in Fairfield, Connecticut, in the United States. The derailed train fouled the adjacent line and a train heading in the opposite direction then collided with it. There were at least 65 injured among the approximately 250 people on board each of the two trains. Metro-North reported damages at $18.5 million.
The Saugus Branch Railroad was an American rail line that operated passenger service from 1853 to 1958. It serviced the Massachusetts communities of Saugus, Malden, Everett, Revere, and Lynn.
On the morning of December 1, 2013, a Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line passenger train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Four of the 115 passengers were killed and another 61 injured; the accident caused $9 million worth of damage. It was the deadliest train accident within New York City since a 1991 subway derailment in Manhattan, and the first accident in Metro-North's history to result in passenger fatalities. The additional $60 million in legal claims paid out as of 2020 have also made it the costliest accident in Metro-North's history.
The 1990 Back Bay, Massachusetts train collision was a collision between an Amtrak passenger train, the Night Owl, and a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Stoughton Line commuter train just outside Back Bay station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the Amtrak train entered a speed-restricted curve at excessive speed, causing the train to derail and crash into the MBTA commuter train on an adjacent track. Although no one was killed in the accident, 453 people were injured and Back Bay station was closed for six days. Total damage was estimated at $14 million. The accident led to new speed restrictions and safety improvements in the vicinity of Back Bay and a revamp of Amtrak's locomotive engineer training program.
On the evening of February 3, 2015, a commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing near Valhalla, New York, United States, between the Valhalla and Mount Pleasant stations, killing six people and injuring 15 others, seven very seriously. The crash is the deadliest in Metro-North's history, and at the time the deadliest rail accident in the United States since the June 2009 Washington Metro train collision, which killed nine passengers and injured 80.
The 2015 Oxnard train derailment occurred on February 24, 2015, at 5:44 a.m. local time when a Metrolink passenger train collided with a truck that a driver had mistakenly turned from Rice Avenue onto the tracks and became stuck. After impact, the train derailed at Oxnard, California, United States. As a result of the crash, the train engineer died from his injuries a week later and 32 passengers and crew members were injured. The truck driver exited his vehicle and ran from the scene prior to the crash; he sustained minor injuries that were unrelated to the crash sequence.
On December 18, 2017, Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 derailed near DuPont, Washington, United States. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) final report said regional transit authority Sound Transit failed to take steps to mitigate a curve at the accident location, and inadequately trained the train engineer. The train was making the inaugural run of the Point Defiance Bypass, a new passenger rail route south of Tacoma, Washington, operated by Amtrak in partnership with state and local authorities in Oregon and Washington, on right-of-way owned and operated by Sound Transit. The bypass was intended to reduce congestion and separate passenger and freight traffic, and was designed for faster speeds and shorter travel times, saving ten minutes from Seattle to Portland compared with the previous route used by Cascades.
The 1976 Beckemeyer crossing accident occurred on February 7, 1976 and was a collision between a pickup truck and a train in the town of Beckemeyer, Illinois. The train crash killed 12 people, including 11 children, and injured three others. The disaster was the worst in the history of Clinton County.
On June 27, 2022, the Southwest Chief, a passenger train operated by Amtrak, derailed near the small town of Mendon, Missouri. The derailment was caused by the train striking a dump truck that was obstructing the crossing of County Road 113, about three miles (4.8 km) southwest of Mendon. Four people were killed in the wreck: three passengers on board the train and the truck driver, with up to 150 people injured.
The Swampscott train wreck occurred on February 28, 1956, in Swampscott, Massachusetts when a Danvers–Boston commuter train crashed into the rear of a stopped Portsmouth–Boston local train just north of the station during a snowstorm. The collision, blamed on the engineer operating at unsafe speeds for the conditions, killed 13 people and injured 283.
Railway accidents in 1966 | |
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| Location and date |
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