The Benavídez rail disaster, which occurred on February 1, 1970, is the worst-ever rail disaster in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, leaving 236 dead and more than 500 injured.

Summary

This accident happened in an isolated, dimly lit area near Benavídez station, between

Ingeniero Maschwitz Ingeniero Maschwitz, known simply as Maschwitz, is a town in the Escobar Partido of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the urban conurbation of Greater Buenos Aires. This is the small town where International evangelist Luis P ...

and

General Pacheco General Pacheco is a city in the Tigre Partido Tigre Partido is a '' partido'' of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, situated in the northern part of Greater Buenos Aires. The department covers a large section of the Paraná Delta and its low-l ...

, north of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. A twenty-one-carriage mixed passenger and freight

General Bartolomé Mitre Railway The General Bartolomé Mitre Railway (FCGBM) (native name: Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre), named after the former Argentine president Bartolomé Mitre, is one of the six state-owned Argentine railway lines formed after President Juan Per� ...

express,"Historia de un trágico accidente ferroviario"
by Fernando Pérez, Actualidad Tigre-San Fernando, 17 Jan 2012 (''Estrella del Norte'') operated by

State-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

Ferrocarriles Argentinos Ferrocarriles Argentinos (abbreviated as FA; ) was a state-owned company that managed the entire Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years. It was formed in 1948 when all the private railway companies were nationalised during Juan Perón's fir ...

, hauled by two diesel locomotives and carrying 260 passengers, was nearing the end of its 1,000-mile journey from Tucumán to Retiro in Buenos Aires"Accidentes Ferroviarios (Parte XI) - Benavídez, 1970"
on TodoTren.com.ar and had just passed Benavídez."La Bajada 71"
/ref> Accidente benavidez 3

Ahead of it, a ten-carriage local train was carrying 1,090 passengers home to the capital after spending a weekend in fashionable Zárate on the banks of the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...

, but had come to a halt due to 'fuel injector trouble'.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', Tuesday, Feb 03, 1970; pg. 7; Issue 57784; col A Despite being stopped for 40 minutes as they tried to fix the problem, the crew of the local train failed to provide protection and at 20:15 the express ran into the back of it at a speed of 65 mph. The two diesel locomotives 'totally destroyed' the rear car and telescoped the next car through almost the entire length of the third from rear car, pushing it 80 yards down the track, though some passengers managed to jump clear. All the deaths and major injuries were aboard the local train. The pilot of an aeroplane radioed a control tower, who in turn notified emergency services.

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

helicopters were used to bring medical supplies. An emergency hospital was established at the Pacheco station, five miles north of the accident site, and temporary morgues were set up at Pacheco and Benavídez. Survivors quoted in ''

'' said, 'We saw mutilated bodies everywhere', there was 'blood all over the place, the soldiers were just filling sacks with severed limbs'. In all 236 people were killed and more than 500 injured. After the accident ''Así'', a popular weekly magazine, published a 32-page article including gory photographs of the train crash and as a result was closed indefinitely by the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

that governed Argentina by then.''Railway Wrecks'' by Edgar A. Haine, page 144-145, publ 1993,

Bibliography

*''Railway Wrecks'' by Edgar A. Haine, 1993, , pp. 144-145

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benavidez Rail Disaster Railway accidents in 1970 Train collisions in Argentina 1970 in Argentina Tigre, Buenos Aires February 1970 events in South America 1970 disasters in Argentina