List of rail accidents (1980–1989)

This is a list of rail accidents from 1980 to 1989.

1980 February 16 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train derailed at , Hertfordshire due to a broken rail. 19 people were seriously injured. April 2 – United States – Lakeview, North Carolina: Amtrak's Silver Star collided head-on with a Seaboard Coast Line freight train during dense fog, injuring 123. It was determined that the engineer of the Amtrak train failed to reduce speed and comply with approach signal indications, causing the collision.National Transportation Safety Board Railroad Accident Report RAR-80-8, Head-On Collision Between Amtrak Train No. 82 and Seaboard Coast Line Extra 2771 South in Lakeview, North Carolina, Retrieved Apr. 6, 2016.Legeros Fire Blog Archives 2006–2015, Vance County Train Derailment (1984), Mike Legeros, Raleigh Times, March 6, 1984, Retrieved Apr. 6, 2016. April 9 – United States – Western Pacific Railroad Company freight train Extra UP 3734 West (Sealand 6), had its caboose, a pusher locomotive behind the caboose, and seven cars derail while crossing the Industrial Parkway overpass at Hayward, California.Two train crewmembers were killed and two were injured. July 9 – United States – Amtrak passenger train 225 was struck by a 15-foot (4.6-metre) section of rail protruding from the side of a railcar at Linden, New Jersey. The rail penetrated the first car of passenger train, struck and killed a passenger, and injured 17 others. July 17 – United States – North Wales, Pennsylvania: SEPTA commuter train 472 being operated from the second car of the train collided with train number 406 stopped at North Wales station, injuring 67. July 25 – Netherlands – Winsum train collision: Two trains collided on a single track between Groningen and Roodeschool, killing nine and injuring 21. August 1 – Ireland – Buttevant Rail Disaster, County Cork: A train on the main Dublin – Cork line was routed by mistake into a siding and derailed, killing 18 and injuring 62. August 19 – Poland – Otłoczyn railway accident: A freight train ran through a red light and slammed into a passenger train traveling from Toruń to Łódź near Otłoczyn, killing 67 people and injuring 65. October 4 – USSR – : Two passenger trains collided at Tallinn main station (now in Estonia) after a departing train passed a red signal. Nine people were killed, 46 were injured. November 17 – United States – Cima Hill, California: Runaway Union Pacific Railroad train loaded with ties failed to brake and crashed into another train near Kelso, California. Three railroad workers were killed; one was critically injured. November 21 – Italy – Curinga train disaster: A Rome-Siracusa express train rammed into a freight train, and then derailed the Sicily-Rome express train, crushing four passenger cars at Curinga near Lamezia Terme, Catanzaro, killing 29 people and injuring 104. December 13 – Yugoslavia – A freight train failed to wait for an oncoming passenger train and collided with it head-on near Bosanska Krupa (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), killing 23 people.

1981 January 14 – Ghana – An express train derailed between Accra and Kumasi, killing at least 21 people and injuring about 200. January 19 – France – An RER A express train in Paris at Auber station crashed, killing one person and injuring 73 in a rear-end collision caused by the train driver misunderstanding a new signaling system installed only two days earlier. It is the Paris RER's first fatal accident. January 21 - Indonesia - In Central Java, a Senja IV train departing from Purwokerto train station and Maja train departing from Kroya train station collided in Gunung Payung, near the Serayu River Bridge. 7 people were killed and dozens of people were injured. March 8 - Argentina - Brandsen rail disaster - A passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, killing 34. May 14 – South Korea – An express from Busan to Seoul was stopped after hitting a motorcycle on a level crossing at Daegu. The local train following then collided with the express; killing 54. June 4 – Poland – Osieck rail crash: A head-on collision occurred between PKP class EN57 and a freight train. 25 people were killed, mostly railroad workers returning home from work.http://www.petka.pl/wypadki/wypadek_osieck.htm June 6 – India – Bihar train derailment: Between 300–800 were killed after a train fell into a river.. Emergency & Disaster – Management Inc. June 25(?) – USSR – Near Gagra (now in Abkhazia, claimed by Georgia), an express train collided with a local train, killing 70 people and injuring over 100. July 3 – United States – A motorman was killed and 140 injured after a Manhattan bound New York City Subway train rear-ended a second train in a tunnel in the New Lots line of Brooklyn near Sutter Avenue station. The crash was blamed both on a Railway signal failure and the deceased motorman who was traveling unsafely during sporadic power outages in a dark tunnel. July 9 – China – 1981 Chengdu–Kunming rail crash: Passenger train No. 442 plunged into the Dadu River after the Liziyida bridge was destroyed by a mudslide 15 minutes earlier; both engines and three carriages fell into the water while a fourth overturned at the tunnel exit. 260-360 people were killed, making it the deadliest rail accident in China. July 16 – India – Freight and passenger trains collided at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, killing 38 people and injuring 42. July 18 – India – A derailment near Dangarva (near Ahmedabad), possibly due to sabotage, killed 35 people. July 31 – Pakistan – The Awar Express from Karachi en route to Lahore and Peshawar, carrying many Muslim passengers because of the end of Ramadan, derailed on damaged track, possibly due to sabotage, at Bahawalpur, killing at least 30 . August 11 - United States - In the Prides Crossing area of Beverly, Massachusetts (north of Boston), a Boston & Maine passenger train operated for the MBTA collided head-on with a Boston & Maine freight train, killing four people. August 31 – India – The derailment of a Madras to Delhi express near Asifabad Road station in Rebbena killed at least 25 people and injured at least 40. December 11 – United Kingdom – Seer Green rail crash: Due to heavy snow, tree branches fell onto the tracks of the line from London Marylebone to High Wycombe, between Gerrards Cross and Seer Green. While one driver stopped to clear some branches, the Gerrards Cross signalman assumed at first that the track still showed occupied on his diagram because a branch was shorting out the track circuit. He told the next train's driver to proceed with caution, but he accelerated to about and crashed into the stopped train, killing himself and three passengers.

1982 January 2 – United States – Southampton station (Pennsylvania): A SEPTA train collided with a gasoline tanker truck and a car at a level crossing, killing the train driver and injuring 5 others. January 13 – United States – Washington, D.C.: 1982 Washington Metro train derailment - An Orange line train derailed on the Washington Metro between the Smithsonian and Federal Triangle stations. While the train was being backed, the derailed truck drove the aluminum car into a tunnel support, killing three people. January 27 – Algeria – Bouhalouane train crash: An express train from Algiers to Oran, overloaded with 450 passengers, stalled while climbing a hill at Beni Helouane, prompting another locomotive to be brought in. But when the train's existing locomotive was uncoupled, braking on the passenger cars was lost and they ran away, killing at least 130 people and injuring 140. (The same newspaper item mentions two different accidents.) January 27 – India – At Agra, a late-running express crashed into a goods train in fog during a power outage, killing 63 and injuring 41. Poor visibility of the oil lamps substituting for the normal signals was suspected, but the Minister of Railways blamed the driver of the express. March 14 – United States – Mineola, New York: A Long Island Rail Road train hit a van at a level crossing on Herricks Road killing nine and injuring one. March 17 - Vietnam - Vietnam Railways passenger train 183 (also known as SE6), coming from Nha Trang, derailed while approaching a C-curve rail near Bàu Cá station, Đồng Nai province, killing over 200 passengers and crew. This is considered as the most tragic railway accident in the history of Vietnam Railways. May 28 – China – Liaoning, Xinmin: A passenger train overturned near Xinglongdian along Shenyang-Shanhaiguan Railway, killing three people and injuring 147. May 31 – United States – Colonial Heights, Virginia: A Seaboard Coast Line freight train derailed at the Swift Creek Bridge after a hard run-in of slack due to changing grades. One tank car was breached and caught fire. 12 firefighters and a state emergency official were injured during firefighting operations. It was determined that the train was traveling over the speed limit for a restricted classification and the engineer failed to control the slack action of the train while transiting changes in grades.National Transportation Safety Board Railroad Accident Report RAR-83/04, Derailment of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Train No. 120 at Colonial Heights, Virginia, Retrieved Apr. 7, 2016. July 7 – United States – Fair Lawn, New Jersey: Teenagers threw a switch and sent a commuter train into a pasta factory, killing the engineer. Four youths were charged. July 12 – Mexico – A Nogales-to-Guadalajara passenger train plunged into a ravine in a remote mountainous area near Tepic, killing at least 52 and injuring at least 120. August 2 – West Germany – Ostercappeln: Two drunk British Army soldiers from the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, at Mercer Barracks, stole an armoured personnel carrier (AFV432) at the Osnabrück barracks and crashed into an oncoming D 15233 after the APC was driven on the Rollbahn railway tracks. Both engines of the train and five cars derailed while the tank was completely destroyed. 23 people were injured while the two soldiers were killed.Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, August 3, 1982 September 12 – Switzerland – A bus carrying members of Schönaich sports association was hit by a late-running three-car regional train on a level crossing in Pfäffikon after an attendant failed to close manually operated barriers. 39 people on the bus were killed, only 2 survived. October 17 – Argentina – Two passenger trains collided in Quilmes, killing more than 20 and injuring 70.

1983 March 22 – Bangladesh – A bridge near Ishurdi collapsed under a train, with the corresponding ends of successive spans falling. The train landed on a dry section of the river bed and one car ended up almost vertical, leaning against the bridge with one end on the ground and the other in mid-air. About 60 people were killed. June 10 – Egypt – A train rear-ended another south of Cairo, and ended up with a baggage car standing vertically on its end that was crushed between the locomotive and the first passenger car. At least 22 people were killed and 46 injured. August 21 – Ireland – Cherryville Junction, County Kildare: A train which stopped after running out of fuel was rear-ended by a second train which had passed a danger signal, killing seven people and injuring 55. September 2 – United States – A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train derailed near Murdock, Illinois, starting a fire which heated tanks filled with liquefied petroleum gas, resulting in two large boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions. The force of the explosion blasted one of the tanker cars away from the derailment. November 6 – China – Jiangsu, Nanjing – A passenger train and a freight train collided east of Nanjing during fog, killing one person aboard the freight train and injuring 31 passengers.