A Brief History
On June 2, 2023, a passenger train slammed into a stopped freight train, derailing cars into the path of another passenger train creating a deadly three train wreck that cost 296 lives and injured another 1,200 people. Known as “The Odisha Train Collision” in Eastern India, the wreck was the worst train disaster since the 2004 “Tsunami Train Wreck” in Sri Lanka.
Digging Deeper
The 2004 train disaster in Sri Lanka happened when a tsunami generated by the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 engulfed a coastal train, killing at least 1700 passengers, the biggest death toll of any train wreck ever.
Trains are big, and when they wreck, the results are often spectacular. The term, “train wreck,” dates to 1876, and means either a literal wreck involving one or more trains, or an egregious disaster. Not only have we developed the term “train wreck,” in 2015 a major motion picture that featured LeBron James was named Train Wreck.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Have you ever seen a train wreck?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hogan, Donna. Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith. Phoenix Books, Inc, 2007.
Reed, Robert. Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line. Schiffer, 1997.
