Woerden train disaster

The Woerden train accident was a railway accident on 21 November 1960 at around 20:10 in Woerden, the Netherlands near the Cattenbroek rail crossing. The train involved in the crash, a DM80760 / Fac BD, was a British train from Hanover, Germany to Hook of Holland, the Netherlands with 151 furloughs including some 10 women and several children. The train driver failed to notice a temporary speed limit. The train rode too fast and crashed. The train broke behind the second carriage and six of the eleven carriages derailed and tilted partially. Two people died, three people were seriously injured and tens more received minor injuries.

Contents

• Cause
• Victims
• References

Ambulances from surrounding places (Zwammerdam, Woerden, Bodegraven and Utrecht) were summoned. The rescue operation was difficult because the site of the disaster was only accessible through a muddy country road. Eventually people had to be carried on a stretcher over a few hundred meters to the ambulances, before it was better organized later. Some military personnel helped during the rescue operation while others were sent to Woerden railway station. Around 100 people of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen started the cleanup with cutting torches. Hours after the disaster the unharmed people were brought to Gouda by bus from where they were transported to Hook of Holland by train.

The tracks were blocked in both directions. The overhead wire was destroyed and the overhead supports had fallen on the tracks. The cleanup work was continued through the whole night and in the early morning, after the day of the crash, train traffic was resumed on one track. Train cranes were able to lift some carriages back on the track in the morning. During the day after the crash the president of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, ir. J. Lohman, visited the disaster site.