Versailles rail accident
Versailles rail accident | |
---|---|
Details | |
Date | 8 May 1842 |
Location | Meudon, Paris |
Coordinates | 48°49′06″N 02°13′52″E / 48.81833°N 2.23111°E |
Country | France |
Cause | Broken axle |
Statistics | |
Trains | 1 |
Deaths | 52–200 |
Injured | Hundreds |
List of rail accidents (before 1880) |
On 8 May 1842, a train crashed in the cutting between
Derailment and fire
By the late afternoon of Sunday 8 May 1842, the public celebrations being held in honour of king
The fire was so intense that the number of fatalities could not be determined, with estimates varying between 52[2] and 200,[4] and hundreds of people were seriously injured.[5] Among the deaths was the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville and his family; his remains were identified by a sculptor from a cast he had made of the skull.[2]: 60
Some religious groups said the passengers had been punished for travelling on a Sunday.[6] A chapel named "Notre-Dame-des-Flammes" (English: Our Lady of the Flames) was built in Meudon in memory of the victims; this was listed as a Monument historique in 1938, but delisted in 1959 and demolished soon after.[7]
Legacy
This was the worst rail disaster in the world at the time. The derailment led to the abandonment of the practice of locking passengers in their carriages in France.[8] The French government appointed a commission to investigate the derailment; this recommended testing axles to determine their service life and monitoring their usage so that they could be replaced after travelling a safe distance.[9]
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ a b Louis Armand. Histoire des chemins de fer en France (in French). Presses Modernes. p. 42.
- ^ Charles Francis Adams (1879). Notes on Railroad Accidents. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Available online at catskillarchive.com The Versailles Accident. Accessed 26 October 2012.
- ^ Patrice Boussel (1972). Histoire de la vie française: Les révolutions, 1789–1871 (in French). Éditions de "l'Illustration". Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Pierre Mercier (1993). "L'opinion publique après le déraillement de Meudon en 1842". Paris et Ile-de-France – Mémoires (Tome 44) (in French). Fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et Ile-de-France.
- ISBN 978-2-7475-0737-0. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-08-043699-9. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "Chapelle Notre Dame des Flammes". patrimoine-de-france.com (in French). Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ISBN 9781781854068.
- ^ Sendeckyj 2006, pp. 480–481.
- ^ Sendeckyj 2006, p. 472.
- ^ Sendeckyj 2006, p. 488.
- ^ Sendeckyj 2006, pp. 472–473.
Sources
- George Sendeckiyj (2006). "Early Railroad Accidents and the Origins of research on fatigue of metals", Appendix A of Theodore Nicholas (2006). High Cycle Fatigue: A Mechanics of Materials Perspective. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-044691-2.
Further reading
- Lewis, Peter R.; Nisbet, Alistair (2008). Wheels to Disaster!: The Oxford train wreck of Christmas Eve, 1874. Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-4512-0.
- Louis Eugène Robert (1843). Histoire et description naturelle de la commune de Meudon (in French). Paulin. pp. 110–144. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
External links
- Media related to Meudon rail accident at Wikimedia Commons