| Queronque rail disaster | |
| Date: | February 17, 1986 |
| Time: | 19:45 |
| Location: | Limache, Marga Marga Province |
| Country: | Chile |
| Line: | Santiago - Valparaíso |
| Operator: | EFE |
| Type: | Head-on collision |
| Trains: | 2 |
| Passengers: | 1000 |
| Deaths: | 58+ |
| Injuries: | 510, 111 serious |
The Queronque rail accident was a head-on train collision that happened on February 17, 1986, on the line between Santiago and Valparaíso in Chile. It is the worst in Chilean history, killing at least 58 people.[1]
The accident happened in the Marga Marga Province of Valparaíso Region, between Peñablanca and Limache stations on a sharp curve. Both of the trains involved were three-carriage electric AES units and were carrying around a thousand people in total. The accident happened at 19:45 when the 17:30 from Los Andes to Valparaiso collided head on with a train travelling from Valparaiso to Mapocho Station in Santiago.[2] The front carriages embedded themselves in each other for a distance of five metres, killing those at the front of both trains.[3]
Repair work to a bridge damaged in an explosive attack by the FPMR[4] six months previously meant that a single line was used for trains travelling in both directions.[5] In addition, the signalling on the line dated from 1928 and had developed a fault a few days before the accident.[3] But the accident was primarily blamed on the stationmaster at Limache, who should have held the train from Los Andes until the train from Valparaiso had passed.[6] Theft of telephone cabling meant that the phone link between stations was not working,[7] and it was over an hour before rescue teams arrived at the scene of the accident.[4] The rescue efforts continued until 11:30 the following morning; an emergency hospital room was set up on the platform at Limache station; its speakers were used to ask for blood donors to come forward.[3]
The official figures state that 58 people were killed and 510 injured, 111 of them seriously.[6] However, some sources state the fatality figure to be much higher, 110[5] and a recent video documentary puts it at 200.[8]
Dictator Augusto Pinochet visited the injured in hospital shortly after the incident and pledged compensation to those affected similar to that in place for road accident victims.[3]
As a result of the tragedy, the train service between Santiago and Valparaiso was suspended, only resuming in 1992 with the installation of radio communications in the trains.[3] The line is now operated by MERVAL, the Valparaiso region metro system.