Tenga rail disaster

The Tenga rail disaster of May 25, 2002 occurred at Tenga 40 km north-west from Maputo, Mozambique causing 192 deaths and 167 injured.[1][2]

Tenga rail disaster
Details
Date25 May 2002
5:00 am
LocationTenga
CountryMozambique
LineMaputo railroad / CFM Sul
OperatorMozambique Ports and Railways
Incident typeRunaway
Statistics
Trains1
Deaths192
Injured167

Overview

The train comprised carriages containing 600 people and several wagons loaded with South African cement. The carriages were uncoupled about 5 km from Tenga, possibly as part of a manoeuvre by the train crew. The carriages then rolled down the line into Tenga, and crashed into the stationary rail wagons loaded with cement from the train which were coupled to the locomotive.

Three days of mourning were declared by then President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano.[3]

Cause

The crash was blamed on human error and a manoeuvre that went wrong.[4] It appears that the crew were intending to go back and pick up the carriages. The worst casualties were in the first two carriages. Hence it appears that the carriages crashed into part of the same train, not a following train.

Similar accidents

Similar accidents can help explain the current one.

See also

References
  1. "National mourning for train crash". Mozambique News Agency. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  2. "Death toll in train crash rises to 200". Mozambique News Agency. 25 May 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  3. "Mozambique mourns rail disaster victims". BBC News. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  4. "Times Daily - Google News Archive Search".

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