| Peruman railway accident | |
| Coordinates: | 9.1167°N 76.4833°W |
| Date: | July 8 1988. |
| Time: | 01:15 PM |
| Location: | Ashtamudi Lake, Kollam district, Kerala |
| Location City: | Kollam |
| Country: | India |
| Line: | Kollam – Ernakulam line between stations Kollam and Munrothuruthu |
| Operator: | Southern Railway Zone |
| Type: | Derailment |
| Cause: | Unknown |
| Trains: | 1 |
| Deaths: | 107 |
| Injuries: | 200 |
The Peruman railway accident occurred on 8 July 1988 when a train derailed on the Peruman bridge over Ashtamudi Lake in Kerala, India and fell into the water, killing 105 people. The cause was never established, but was blamed on track alignment and faulty wheels, possibly compounded by a failure to notify maintenance workers about the approach of a delayed train that had been making-up time by travelling at excessive speed.
The accident occurred at Peruman bridge over Ashtamudi Lake, Perinadu, Kollam, Kerala, at around 13:15 local time. Ten carriages of the Train Number:26 Island Express, travelling from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram Central, derailed and fell into the lake. Of the 14 coaches, only the engine, the parcel van and a second class compartment had crossed the bridge when the derailment occurred. Two of the nine coaches that fell into the water turned upside down.[1]
The rescue operations began immediately as locals of Perumon and Munrothuruthu rushed to the scene. The injured were taken to Kollam's district hospital and nearby private clinics. Realising the scale of the tragedy, three helicopters and over 100 navy divers were also sent to the scene into from Cochin, 140 km away. Union Minister of State for Railways Madhavrao Scindia, accompanied by Railway Board members, flew down in a chartered plane to supervise the rescue operations. Scindia announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 1 lakh (100,000) each to relatives of each of the dead. The crash left 105 people dead and around 200 injured.[2] [3]
The exact cause of the crash is still unknown.[4]
The crash was featured in the 1990 Malayalam movie Iyer the Great. The short film Island Express tells the story of different people and their journey after the crash. In the Malayalam movie Maheshum Marutiyum (2023), the protagonist's father dies in the derailment.