During the middle of the night on February 18, 51 railway cars carrying highly flammable materials — sulfur, fertilizer, petroleum, and cotton — broke free from their siding at the Abu Muslim station. They rolled down the track for about 20 kilometers, eventually derailing and dropping down an embankment into the village of Khayyam, near Nishapur. Although the train was unmanned, rescue workers began searching for anyone who might have been trapped inside, and to extinguish fires that were erupting in and around the wreckage. A large crowd of local people collected to watch the operations.
The substances in the cars had leaked following the crash. With the rescue workers and crowd in close proximity, the cargo exploded, with a force estimated to be the equivalent of about 180 tons of TNT. The entire village was demolished and all workers and onlookers were killed or seriously injured. The train and village continued to burn and explode over the following several days.
Although the total death toll is not known, authorities were able to identify 295 confirmed killed and over 460 injured, including 182 rescue workers and state officials.
Firozabad, India — 1995
At 2:55 on the morning of August 20, two trains bound for Delhi with a combined total of 2200 passengers collided near the village of Firozabad in Northern India. The accident occurred because one of the trains, the “Kalindi Express” had stopped after hitting a cow. While none of it’s 900 passengers were injured in this incident, the train was unable to proceed because of damage to the braking system. However, the signalman, Lai Sharman, did not stop the the second train, the “Purishottam Express”, coming down the tracks only a few minutes behind the Kalindi Express.
The conductor of the Pursishottom had no warning of the stopped train ahead and hit it at full speed, about 50 miles per hour. Six of the cars on the two trains virtually exploded on impact, and bodies and body parts were thrown everywhere. A total of 358 people were killed and at least another 400 were seriously injured. Signalman Sharma went into hiding and was never found.
