Turenne rail accident

The Turenne rail accident occurred on 14 September 1932 when a train carrying French Foreign Legionnaires crashed in Algeria killing 62 people.

Turenne rail accident
Details
Date	14 September 1932 14:40[1]
Location	Tlemcen Province
Country	Algeria
Line	Sidi Bel Abbès to Oujda
Operator	French Foreign Legion
Incident type	Derailment
Cause	undermined track
Statistics
Trains	1
Passengers	500
Deaths	62
Injured	223

The military train carrying 500 soldiers departed Sidi Bel Abbès at 07:15 that morning[1] bound for Oujda in Morocco. In the mountainous Tlemcen Province between Zelboun and Turenne (now called Sabra) it derailed, the engine and all 14 carriages fell 250 feet into a ravine killing 57 soldiers and 5 train crew;[2] 223 men were injured. The population of Turenne helped in the initial rescue work until a relief train arrived. The injured were taken by train to Tlemcen but it was not until the following night that all the survivors were extricated. An investigation revealed the trackbed to be loose and undermined by recent heavy rainfall. Many Legionnaires managed to jump from the rear carriages to safety when they saw those carriages ahead plunging off the rails.

A 12-metre-high (39 ft) monument has been erected near the site of the disaster, topped by a grenade, the symbol of the French Foreign Legion.[2]

Sources

• Railroad Wrecks by Edgar A. Haine, page 143, publ. 1993 ISBN 0-8453-4844-2

References

1. Pred de Tlemcen un train tombe dans un ravin, Le Matin, 15 September 1932 (in French)
2. L'inauguration du monument élevé à la mémoire des victimes de la catastrophe de Tunrenne (in French)

External links

• 1932: Railway Accident Turenne page 1, page 2 (French newspaper articles)
• Photographs of the monument and site of the crash