Vigerslev train crash

On 1 November 1919, an express train collided at speed with a stopped train near Vigerslev, Denmark, due to a dispatcher error. 40 people were killed and about 60 injured.

Background

Vigerslev is noways a part of Copenhagen's western Valby district. Vigerslev train station is nowadays the Hvidovre station of the B-line of Copenhagen's S-tog network. The accident happened to the west of Vigerslev station, between current Rødovre station and Hvidovre station. At the time, the area around the track was farm land.

Train number 168 en route from Kalundborg to Copenhagen Central Station was delayed by about 15 minutes due to the heavy traffic on the line. The train consisted of 11 wagons. The last wagon was a well occupied 3rd class passenger car.

Train 168 was followed by an unscheduled train that carried firefighting equipment to Køge, where it was urgently required to fight a large fire. This train on its part followed an extra express train service, number 8064, on its way from Korsør to Copenhagen Central Station. Pulling it was a high speed steam locomotive that could reach 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph). The wagons after the locomotive were a two-axle mail carriage, a four-axle baggage car and a row of four-axle passenger cars.

Accident

Against the timetable, train 168 stopped just after passing Vigerslev station. It was almost 20:50. It later turned out that an 8-year old boy opened one of the outer doors of the train and fell out. Another passenger pulled the emergency brake in response to that. The train now had to drive back to search for the boy.

However, the train dispatcher decided that the train carrying the fire fighting equipment had priority and signalled that the track was free to this train. Train 168 had to wait at the Vigerslev station, the engineer of train 168 was told to look for the boy as soon as the other train had passed. After the train passed, train 168 reversed in the direction of Brøndbyøster station, passing the entry signal from behind. The train dispatcher had only thought about the train carrying the firefighting equipment, and gave train 168 a free path to Brondbyøster. Shortly after he noticed that he didn't think about the express train, and he tried to contact Brøndbyøster station. This was unsuccesfull however, as his colleague at Brondbyøster was busy with the throughcoming express train. After the dispatcher at Vigerslev managed to have phone contact with the Brondbyøster dispatcher and made him aware of the danger, he grabbed a red signalling lantern, ran toward the engineer of train 168 and commanded him to reverse. The engineer followed his command, but the steam locomotive accelarated only slowly.

Train 168 had only travelled 130 metres (430 ft) from the entry signal at Vigerslev towards the direction of Brondbyøster. The boy who fell of the train had been found next to the track, he had survived with a broken leg. Meanwhile, the dispatcher ran towards Brondbyøster to signal the express train to stop with his lantern. The express train was already nearing rapidly however.

Although the red entry signals, the red tail signals of train 168 and the dispatcher's lantern were visible to the engineer of the express train, the train didn't brake, as passengers in the train would later testify. On 21:01 he express train crashed into train 168 at full speed. The last five carriages of train 168 were completely smashed, 30 passengers died in these. Parts of the carriages crashed down an 8 metres (26 ft) high embankment. The express train's locomotive and its three front wagons came to a stop on the remains of train 168's carriages. 6 passengers of the express train died, as well as the engineer and the fireman, who died on the site, badly burned by the boiling water from the locomotive's kettle.

Aftermath

In total 40 people died, 58 were injured of which 27 badly. It was the worst railway accident in Denmark in number of victims. The damage to equipment was 1.2 million Danish Crowns. As the accident took place away from a station, the site was not lit, which complicated the salvage operations. The only light source available were the front signals of the train carrying the fire fighting equipment, that travelled back to the site of the accident.

The dispatcher in Vigerslev was sentenced to two months jail time in 1920. The express train locomotive was repaired and totaled by another accident in 1951. One of the driving wheel axles of the locomotive is on display at the Forstadsmuseet in Brondbyøster.

References

Coordinates: 55°39′51″N 12°28′39″E / 55.66417°N 12.47750°E / 55.66417; 12.47750

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