Violet Town railway disaster

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The Violet Town railway disaster, also known as the Southern Aurora disaster, was a railway accident that occurred in Violet Town in Victoria, Australia on February 7, 1969. The accident involved the head-on collision of a passenger train, the Southern Aurora, and a freight train travelling in opposite directions on the new single line standard gauge Sydney to Melbourne main line. Nine people were killed.

The trains were supposed to cross at the Violet Town crossing loop (where there are two tracks), but because the driver of the passenger train had died of an apparent heart attack, the train did not stop at the red signals and kept on going until it collided with the freight train which was headed in the other direction. At the time of the accident, neither ATC nor AWS were fitted.

As a result of this accident, improved Vigilance controls were fitted to ensure that firemen as well as drivers remained alert, though as the later Beresfield rail disaster in 1996 showed, these were not foolproof.