| 1953 Comodoro Rivadavia rail disaster | |
| Date: | February 15, 1953 |
| Location: | Punta Piedras, Chubut |
| Country: | Argentina |
| Line: | Comodoro Rivadavia–Rada Tilly |
| Operator: | Ferrocarriles Argentinos (FC Roca) |
| Service: | Passenger |
| Type: | Derailment |
| Cause: | Excessive speed, exceeded capacity |
| Trains: | 1 |
| Passengers: | 100 |
| Crew: | 2 |
| Deaths: | 36 |
| Injuries: | 65 |
| Route Map Name: | Map of the C. Rivadavia–Rada Tilly line |
The 1953 Comodoro Rivadavia rail disaster occurred on February 15, 1953, in Punta Piedras, a beach resort near the city of Comodoro Rivadavia in the Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina. It happened in the branch to Rada Tilly that extended alongside the coast, part of the Comodoro Rivadavia Railway and then operated by Ferrocarriles Argentinos.
The accident resulted in 36 fatalities and 65 injuries.[1]
The train had departed from Rada Tilly station carrying near 100 passengers, most of them were tourists spending their vacations in the city. Wagons were at full capacity due to high demand, as the day of the accident (15 February) was not only a hot day but a holiday.[1]
The single-unit railbus (numbered "52") was about to reach Comodoro Rivadavia when it took a sharp curve, known in the neighborhood as the "sulfa", where the sheds of the Sagosa company stands nowadays. The high speed of the train, the exceeded number of passengers (there were 100 people when the maximum capacity of the coaches were 48), and the 750 mm narrow gauge's insability caused the railcar to be derailed, falling from a 40m (130feet) hillside in a zone known as playa 99, a beach resort in Punta Piedras.[2] The coach was completely destroyed almost completely while its passengers were expelled from it or were smashed by the train.[3]
An emergency operation was immediately set up to help the victims.[3] Due to the low populated region, doctors and nurses were sent from Buenos Aires in a sanitary train to assist the multiple injured.[1] [3] Injured people were carried to Comodoro Rivadavia and Astra Hospitals and Napolitani Sanatorium.
Although the initial number of dead were 23, it then increased to 36 and 65 injured. The number of deaths would continue to grow due to another accident in the rescue operative, when the crane fell off while raising the train, resulting in more fatal victims.[4] The verticality of the slope where the train fell was an additional challenge for the rescue team.[3]
After the accident, the branch to Rada Tilly was closed permanently. Nevertheless, it would not be the last accident on the Comodoro Rivadavia Railway. In 1960, a brake failure caused a train collision in General Mosconi with 3 people dead.[5] [6] [7]
The CRR came to a definitive end in January 1978 when the last train arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia.[8] One year before, the military government led by Jorge Videla had promulgated a decree that closed a high number of rail services in Argentina due to their low profitability,[9] being the CRR one of the several lines affected.[10] A new decree promulgated in 1993 under the Carlos Menem's administration, ratified the closure.[11]