Balvano train disaster

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In the Balvano train disaster of March 2/3, 1944, some 426 people illegally riding on a steam-hauled freight train died of carbon monoxide poisoning when the train stalled on a steep gradient in the Armi tunnel.^[1] The accident occurred in southern Italy, near Balvano (Basilicata).

Contents 1 Circumstances 2 The accident 3 See also 4 Further reading 5 References

[edit] Circumstances

Naples suffered severe wartime shortages, encouraging an extensive black market. The railways also suffered shortages of high quality coal. The burning of low grade substitutes produced a heavy volume of odorless, poisonous carbon monoxide gas, a critical factor in the ensuing disaster.

Many city dwellers--unwilling to go without butter, eggs, poultry, and dairy products--joined the increasing number of black market opportunists. They bartered with servicemen for cigarettes, candy, and gum, then exchanged these commodities for farm products that brought tremendously high prices in Naples. To reach the farmers they stole rides on freight trains that were forbidden to carry passengers. But hundreds of people rode these trains every day, another fact that went unnoticed, officially.

[edit] The accident

It was a dark stormy night just after 6 P.M. on March 2, 1944 when the locomotive No. 8017, reached Eboli, beyond Battipaglia. At about 11:40 P.M. the train carried many illegal passengers. The train chugged slowly upward another 4 miles to stop at the small Balvano station that lay between two long tunnels. A downhill train was having locomotive trouble. While No. 8017 waited for the "clear track ahead" signal, half of its 47 cars were in the lower tunnel wrapped in a blanket of black coal smoke left by its two locomotives. The tunnel was steeply graded and the freight train grossly overloaded with its passengers. The train stalled with almost all the cars inside the tunnel. The passengers and crew were overcome by the smoke and fumes so slowly that they failed to notice the dangers. Most of the few survivors were in the last few cars which were still in the open air. The main culprit was carbon monoxide gas produced as a by-product of combustion, and carbon monoxide poisoning is a well recognized danger when machines are used, or fires occur in enclosed environments. It combines with haemoglobin when inhaled, so the victim dies of anoxia or lack of oxygen. It is still the principal cause of death in mine disasters after a fire or explosion.

There was little publicity at the time owing to the war, but more details became available in the 1950s when relatives of the dead victims pursued a court case against the railway company.

[edit] See also

• List of rail accidents (pre-1950)

[edit] Further reading

• Barneschi, Gianluca (2005). Balvano 1944: I segreti di un disastro ferroviario ignorato. Milano: Mursia. ISBN 88-425-3350-5. 
• Peter Semmens, Railway Disasters of the World, Patrick Stephens Ltd (1994).

[edit] References