The Šakvice train disaster occurred on 24 December 1953 in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

(now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

). A local train was standing at the

Šakvice Šakvice () is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,600 inhabitants. Šakvice lies approximately north-west of Břeclav, south of Brno, and south-east of Prague ...

station (about 35 km south of

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

), when the

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

express ran into it at full speed, resulting in 103 deaths and a further 83 injured. The Ministry of the Interior said there was gross negligence by several railway men who had since been arrested. Other reports said that the express train crew had consumed a number of bottles of wine during their service, thus being completely drunk at the time of the crash. Other sources have over 100, or even 186 deaths. However, due to the totalitarian communist regime of the time, the publicity of the event was minimal. This disaster was one of the 20 most serious rail incidents by death toll at the time,Conly, Geoff & Stewart, Graham: ''Tragedy on the Track: Tangiwai & other New Zealand Railway Accidents'' (Wellington NZ, Grantham House, 1986) (page 181; list of 20 most serious rail accidents by deaths to 1953) and by far the worst in Czechoslovak history until the 1960 Stéblová train disaster.

References

*''The Times'' (London) 29 December 1953, page 5

External links

Paragraph on this and other Christmas accidents
Train collisions in Czechoslovakia Railway accidents and incidents in the Czech Republic Railway accidents in 1953 1953 in Czechoslovakia Břeclav District December 1953 in Europe {{CzechRepublic-transport-stub