Viareggio Train Derailment
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The Viareggio derailment was the
derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...
of a freight train and subsequent fire which occurred on 29 June 2009 in a railway station in
Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...
,
Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...
, a city in
Central Italy Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency. Regions Central It ...
's
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
region. Thirty-two people were killed and a further twenty-six were injured.


Details

Freight train No. 50325 from
Trecate Trecate is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about east of Novara. It harbors a major refinery complex for fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), serving ...
to Gricignano-
Teverola Teverola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about north of Naples and about southwest of Caserta. Teverola borders the following municipalities: Aversa, Carinaro, Casaluce, Santa Ma ...
, hauled by Class E655 locomotive E 655 175 with 14 tank wagons was derailed at Viareggio at 23:48
local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
(21:48 UTC) on 29 June 2009. Of the 14 wagons, the first wagon was registered by
Polskie Koleje Państwowe (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure ...
, the other 13 wagons by
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...
(DB). The first DB-registered wagon, No. 338078182106, which was owned by GATX Rail Austria GmbH derailed on plain track in Viareggio station. The wagon hit the platform of the station and overturned to the left. The next four wagons also overturned and the two following were derailed but remained upright. The last seven wagons were not derailed, remaining intact on the track. The derailed wagons crashed into houses alongside the railway line. Some of the wagons were owned by KVG Kesselwagen, a division of GATX, and leased to
ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
and
ERG The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It originated in the Centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). It has the symbol ''erg''. The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' o ...
(the owners of the oil refinery where the train left), were reported to have been carrying
Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking e ...
(LPG). Two of these exploded and caught fire. Seven people were reported to have been killed when a house collapsed. An eighth person who was killed was reported to have been riding a scooter on a road adjoining the railway. A child was found carbonised in a car in front of the house where he lived with his parents. It is speculated that his parents put him in the car to save him and then returned to the house to save other two children. The two members of the train crew suffered minor injuries in the accident. A large area of Viareggio was damaged in the subsequent fires caused by the wagons carrying LPG self-combusting. Twenty-six people were reported to have been injured in the accident. The accident is the worst rail accident in Italy since the collision between two trains in Murazze di Vado near
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
on 15 April 1978, which killed 48 people. It was reported that a whole street had been destroyed in the explosion and fire.


Aftermath

A state of emergency was declared by local authorities. Around 1,000 residents of Viareggio were evacuated from their homes as a result of the accident. Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
visited Viareggio "to take control of the situation", but he received boos and cries of "go home". Dr. Enrico Petri, an eyewitness and local hospital physician, said that 36 people had been taken to Versilia Hospital in Viareggio suffering from 80–90% burns. He compared the aftermath to a terrorist attack. The accident left around 100 people homeless. The accident resulted in the disruption of rail services between Rome and
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
. Viareggio railway station was partially reopened on 3 July 2009.


Cause

The Direzione Generale per le Investigazioni Ferroviarie, a section of the
Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport This is a list of the Italian Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport, whose office name and portfolio have undergone variations over the last decades. The current minister is Matteo Salvini, leader of the League League or The League may refer ...
opened an investigation into the cause of the accident.In Italy, FS is th
investigating body for railway accidents
Italian police said that the accident may have been caused by damaged tracks or a problem with the brakes on the train. Italian union
CGIL The Italian General Confederation of Labour (; CGIL) is a national trade union based in Italy. It was formed by agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and Christi ...
is reported to have blamed the decrepit state of the rolling stock; the maintenance of the wagon was the responsibility of
GATX GATX Corporation is a railcar lessor that owns fleets in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, jointly with Rolls-Royce Limited, it owns one of the largest aircraft spare engine lease portfolios. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ...
. The failure of an axle on the wagon that derailed is being investigated as a possible cause. Pending the official conclusions of the commissions of inquiry the probable cause of the accident is attributable to structural failure of an axle of the carriage of the first tank wagon derailed. Italian Transport Minister Altero Matteoli informed the Italian Parliament on 1 July that a defective axle may have caused the accident. On 29 July 2009, an Extraordinary Network Meeting of the Network of National Safety Authorities was held. It invited members to disseminate information related to problems related to Type A Axles to railway operators, owners and keepers of freight wagons.


Prosecution

In 2017, the Court of
Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...
tried thirty three people in connection with the derailment. The first instance trial ended with ten accused acquitted and the conviction of the others, including the former
Rete Ferroviaria Italiana Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) is the Italian railway infrastructure manager, subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), a state-owned holding company. RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it provides signalling, maintenance and other ser ...
(RFI)
CEOs Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island o ...
Mauro Moretti Mauro Moretti (born 29 October 1953) is an Italian executive and former CEO and general manager of Leonardo S.p.A. (formerly Finmeccanica), from May 2014 to May 2017. He is also president of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of ...
and
Michele Mario Elia Michele Mario Elia is an Italian manager and CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Spa since May 2014. Life and career He was born at Castellana Grotte on 5 October 1946 and he graduated on 1972. He taught "Misure Elettriche" in 1970s and then ...
. Moretti was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role as CEO of RFI (2001-2006) but acquitted as CEO of
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate ...
(FS) (2006-2014), while Elia was sentenced to seven and a half years. However, the Court of Lucca imposed the highest penalties (from six to eight years) on the defendants of the companies Gatx Rail and Jungenthal, responsible for the mechanical problems that caused the accident. The first instance ruling was partially confirmed by the Florence Court of Appeal with the ruling of 20 June 2019, which also ordered the acquittal of further positions referable to the RFI Company and confirmed the acquittal of
Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...
and FS Logistics from administrative responsibility. During 2020, all the convicts filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. With sentence of 8 January 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the criminal responsibility for the crime of culpable railway disaster of 11 people (of which 9 belonging - at the time of the facts - to the companies responsible for maintenance activities / revision, Gatx Rail Germany, Gatx Rail Austria, Jungenthal, Cima Riparazioni; one belonging to Trenitalia and one to FS Logistica); the Court also annulled the sentence pronounced by the Court of Appeal against the positions of the former CEOs of RFI (
Michele Mario Elia Michele Mario Elia is an Italian manager and CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Spa since May 2014. Life and career He was born at Castellana Grotte on 5 October 1946 and he graduated on 1972. He taught "Misure Elettriche" in 1970s and then ...
and
Mauro Moretti Mauro Moretti (born 29 October 1953) is an Italian executive and former CEO and general manager of Leonardo S.p.A. (formerly Finmeccanica), from May 2014 to May 2017. He is also president of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of ...
, the latter also former CEO of
Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...
) and 3 other people, deferring all to a new appeal judgment. Upon the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment, all the companies originally blamed for administrative liability were definitively acquitted.


See also

*
Lac-Mégantic rail disaster The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 01:15 EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation c ...
– a 2013 derailment of crude oil train and subsequent fire and explosions in the core of a Canadian town with 42 killed and another 5 presumed dead. *
Nishapur train disaster The Neishapur train disaster was a large explosion in the village of Khayyam near Nishapur in Iran, on 18 February 2004. Nearly 300 people were killed and the entire village was destroyed when runaway train wagons crashed into the community in ...
– a 2004 derailment of a runaway fuel and flammable goods train in Iran, the resulting fire and explosion killed around 300 people. *
Soham rail disaster The Soham rail disaster occurred on 2 June 1944, during the Second World War, when a fire developed on the leading wagon of a heavy ammunition train. The wagon contained a quantity of high explosive bombs. The train crew had detached the w ...
– a 1944 fire and subsequent explosion of an ammunition train near Soham, England. *
Expansion ratio The expansion ratio of a liquefied and cryogenic substance is the volume of a given amount of that substance in liquid form compared to the volume of the same amount of substance in gaseous form, at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure. ...
*
Moby Prince disaster The ''Moby Prince'' disaster was a major maritime accident resulting in 140 deaths. It occurred in the late evening of Wednesday 10 April 1991, in the harbor of Livorno, Italy. It is the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World ...


References


External links


Mobile phone footage of the fire
{{Railway accidents in Italy Viareggio derailment Train derailment (2009)
Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...
Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...
Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...
Explosions in 2009 Fires in Italy Accidents and incidents involving Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Gas explosions June 2009 events in Europe Train and subway fires 2009 disasters in Italy