Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 13, 2011

The Getå Railroad Disaster (Järnvägsolyckan i Getå) was a train disaster caused by a landslide in Getå, a town that is now part of the municipality of Norrköping, Sweden, on 1 October 1918. The derailment occurred when the layers of colloidal clay and gravel in the embankment that had been cut into the hill gave way. Shortly afterwards, a mixed train consisting of a locomotive and ten cars came down the tracks, falling down the embankment and landing on the road below. Of the passengers and crew on board that night, 41 people were injured and at least 42 were killed or died later from injuries sustained in the crash. It is unclear how many died in the derailment compared to those who died in the blaze that followed it. Many of the passengers were burned alive as the unreinforced wooden cars caught fire, killing those who had survived the crash itself but were still trapped in the wreckage. To date, this was the worst rail accident in Swedish history.