Tenga rail disaster

Tenga rail disaster
Tenga rail disaster
Details
Date	25 May 2002
Time	5:00 am
Location	Tenga
Country	Mozambique
Rail line	Maputo railroad / CFM Sul
Operator	Mozambique Ports and Railways
Type of incident	Runaway
Statistics
Trains	1
Deaths	192
Injuries	167

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The Tenga rail disaster of May 25, 2002 occurred at Tenga 40 km north-west from Maputo, Mozambique causing 192 deaths and 167 injured.^[1]^[2]

[edit] Overview

The train comprised carriages containing 600 people and several wagons loaded with South African cement. The carriages were uncoupled about 5 km from Tenga, possibly as part of a manoeuvre by the train crew. The carriages then rolled down the line into Tenga, and crashed into the stationary rail wagons loaded with cement from the train which were coupled to the locomotive.

Three days of mourning were declared by then President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano.^[3]

[edit] Cause

The crash was blamed on human error and a manoeuvre that went wrong. It appears that the crew were intending to go back and pick up the carriages. The worst casualties were in the first two carriages. Hence it appears that the carriages crashed into part of the same train, not a following train.

The government declared three days of national mourning, after what was the worst rail crash in the history of Mozambique.