| Tangiwai disaster | |
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The wreckage of the KA locomotive, the sixth carriage and the rail bridge, in the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, 25 December 1953. |
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| Details | |
| Date | 24 December 1953 |
| Time | 22:21 NZDT |
| Location | Whangaehu River Bridge, Tangiwai, North Island |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Rail line | North Island Main Trunk |
| Operator | New Zealand Railways Department |
| Type of incident | Derailment |
| Cause | Bridge collapse due to lahar from Mount Ruapehu |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Passengers | 285 |
| Deaths | 151 |
The Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953 was the worst rail accident in New Zealand history. An 11-carriage overnight express from Wellington to Auckland fell into the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, ten kilometres (six miles) west of Waiouru. The bridge carrying the North Island Main Trunk Railway over the river had been badly damaged just minutes earlier by a lahar from Mount Ruapehu. The KA class steam locomotive, all five second-class carriages, and the leading first-class carriage derailed, resulting in the deaths of 151 of the 285 people aboard the train. Of the 176 second-class passengers aboard, only 28 survived.
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The damage inflicted by the lahar washed away one complete span and left only the rails, supported by the remaining concrete piers. When the train ran onto the bridge the rails were incapable of supporting its weight and buckled in the middle. The engine had nearly made it to the other side when the bridge gave way. The locomotive and first carriage were launched into the air by striking a remaining concrete pier and reached the opposite bank of the river. The impact of the accident caused the locomotive's tender to flip over the locomotive and rip the cab away from the engine, thereby killing the crew. Following the first carriage, the second to fifth carriages tumbled into the river and were torn apart, with substantial loss of life. One of the carriages was carried five miles (8 km) downstream by the lahar. All five of these carriages were second-class carriages; the leading first-class carriage was sixth in the train and it teetered on the edge of the bridge before its coupling to the rest of the train snapped and, with nothing left to restrain it, it rolled into the river. The remaining three first-class carriages, the guard's van, and a travelling post office van remained on the track.[1]
Shortly after the accident, rescue teams departed from Waiouru 8 km (5 mi) east of Tangiwai. These included soldiers from Waiouru Army Camp, radio operators from Irirangi Naval Communications Station and MOW workmen from the Waiouru Ministry of Works camp. By midnight survivors were being admitted into the Waiouru Camp Hospital, and by 4 am on Christmas morning bodies started arriving there.
The Prime Minister, Sidney Holland, arrived at Tangiwai early on Christmas morning after a high-speed drive down from Auckland. He coordinated the rescue work by railway, army, police, navy, MOW, local farmers and undertakers. While the army led efforts near the accident site, local farmers recovered bodies further down the Whangaehu River; at Fields Track, Mount View, Mangamahu, Kauangaroa, Whangaehu village and the river mouth. The bodies were taken by truck to Wanganui and thence by rail to Waiouru, where police and undertakers identified them. Local settlers carried out daily search-and-recovery operations for the next month as bodies rose to the surface.
Among the dead was Nerissa Love, the fiancee of cricketer Bob Blair, who was playing in a Test Match in South Africa at the time. On going out to bat after his loss, he received a standing ovation. Another victim was Suzanne Kennedy, daughter of a local farmer. She was coming home for Christmas and her family were waiting for her at the Karioi railway station, just beyond the Tangiwai bridge.
The death toll of 151 consisted of 148 second-class passengers, one first-class passenger, the engine driver Charles Parker, and the fireman Lance Redman. Twenty of the bodies were never found and were presumed to have been carried 120 km (75 mi) downriver to the ocean.[2] However, over the last fifty years, the skeletons of several victims have been found in the eroding banks of the Whangaehu River . When a farmer found the first skeletal remains from the Tangiwai 12 months after the disaster, he notified the police, and they investigated him for murder, causing great indignation in the district . As a consequence, local settlers have quietly re-interred later skeletal finds .
The actions of numerous individuals saved many lives, with Cyril Ellis in particular credited as a hero. Ellis was driving north with his wife, Patricia Amelia Ellis, and mother-in-law, Gertrude Alice Nicholson, to visit his parents for Christmas when he discovered the road bridge near the railway line was flooded and impassable. He noticed the approaching light of the train, and assuming that the railway bridge would be similarly impassable, he ran to warn the train, brandishing a torch. He stated that he leapt the railway fence, climbed up the embankment, and ran down the middle of the line towards the oncoming train while waving the torch before jumping clear.[3] A commission of inquiry after the accident determined that the locomotive crew were aware of the danger at some point before the accident, as the driver had shut off the steam regulator valve and applied the emergency brakes, and the fireman had sanded the track for 700 metres. However, this took place too close to the bridge to avoid disaster and the commission was unable to ascertain whether Ellis's actions motivated those of the crew.[4]
After the train crashed, Ellis informed the train's guard, William Inglis, of what had happened and the two entered the sixth carriage, then still balanced precariously on the bridge's edge, in an attempt to save passengers. While they were in the carriage, it tumbled off the bridge and Ellis and Inglis, with the assistance of passenger John Holman, smashed a window and helped passengers out of the carriage. Of the carriage's 24 occupants, only one died, a girl who was trapped in her seat and drowned.[5]
For their actions, Ellis and Holman received the George Medal. Inglis and a passing traveller, Arthur Dewar Bell, both received the British Empire Medal for actions that saved 15 lives. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand on their first royal tour when the disaster occurred. The Queen made her Christmas broadcast from Auckland, finishing with a message of sympathy to the people of New Zealand. Prince Philip attended a state funeral for many of the victims.
Evidence given at the commission of inquiry into the disaster revealed that the midstream piers of the bridge had been undermined by previous sudden floods, from as early as 1925. Concrete blocks weighing several tons had been placed around the footings of these piers and the space between the blocks and the piers backfilled with gravel, but the lahar was strong enough to sweep these away.
The cause of the lahar was the collapse of a natural volcanic ash dam blocking the outlet of Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake down the Whangaehu glacier. Until this disaster, the danger posed by lahars from Mount Ruapehu was appreciated by only a few scientists.
Following the disaster, the Railways Department installed a lahar warning system upstream in the river to alert train control to high river flows. Also, signalling of the North Island Main Trunk was modernised - the system at the time consisted of a tablet system with no track circuits. The current line uses centralized traffic control signalling, with track circuits to automatically set signals to danger if the line is occupied or if the tracks are broken. However, it is not always reliable, as tracks can remain intact even though they are unsupported.
The current early warning system, installed in 1999, measures the river level using radar, and sends the level to the Network Control Centre at Wellington Railway Station via a RF link to Waiouru and then via the signalling network to Wellington. If the river changes level, an alarm goes off alerting staff to the fact. If the level is of a significant risk, the Control Centre sets the signals either side of the Tangiwai bridge to danger and warns trains in the area to stay clear via radio. The system is virtually failsafe, as if there is a problem with the system, it automatically sends a fault signal to the Control Centre. In this instance, trains in the area are restricted to 25 km/h (16 mph) and told to take extreme care over the Tangiwai Bridge. Since 2002, it has also been backed-up by the Eastern Ruapehu Lahar Alarm and Warning System (ERLAWS).[6]
A lahar of similar magnitude to the 1953 one occurred on 18 March 2007. The early warning systems worked as planned, stopping trains and motorists at Tangiwai before the lahar hit. The newer bridges held up to the lahar, and after inspection, trains resumed operation over the bridge. No one was injured or killed in the accident.[7]
In 2011, a television film about the disaster was made by Lippy Pictures for Television New Zealand. Entitled Tangiwai: A Love Story, it follows the disaster and the love story between cricketer Bob Blair and his fiancée Nerissa Love (portrayed by Ryan O'Kane and Rose McIver respectively), the latter of whom was killed in the disaster. It premiered on TV One on 14 August 2011.[8]
A play written and performed by Auckland actor Jonny Brugh, The Second Test, tells the same story from Blair's perspective, emphasizing his commitment to continue playing with the New Zealand team, then on tour in South Africa, after hearing of the tragedy.[9]
Railway accidents involving bridge washaways include:
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