The Villepreux–Les Clayes rail accident, commonly referred to at the time as the Villepreux disaster, took place on 18 June 1910 on the , when an express train collided at 18:10 (local time) with a stationary local train in the , located twenty-nine kilometres from Paris, in the commune of Les Clayes-sous-Bois, then in the Seine-et-Oise department.
The accident caused at least twenty-three deaths and fifty-nine injuries,According to newspapers, the number of dead varied between 23 and 28 and that of the injured between 59 and 80, without any official definitive count. and was the first in a tragic series of fatal accidents on the Chemins de fer de l'État, including at Saujon (August 1910), Bernay (September 1910), and Courville (February 1911), which provoked heavy criticism of the administration.
Circumstances The press at the time seemed more concerned with conveying the morbid atmosphere of the disaster and stirring the emotions of readers than with reporting the circumstances precisely. Accounts generally dwelt on the most pathetic or horrible details, while the actual sequence of events was reported with many inaccuracies and approximations, even when the information came from public authorities.
On Saturday, 18 June, train no. 467, a local service to Dreux, departed at 16:20 from the Gare des Invalides.According to Le Figaro, 19 June 1910, it had departed from the Gare Montparnasse. It stopped at Champ de Mars, Versailles-Chantiers, and Saint-Cyr before arriving at 17:10 in the small station of Villepreux–Les Clayes. There, the driver, who had already been forced to halt on the line earlier due to mechanical trouble, attempted a makeshift repair, blocking the level crossing of the rural road linking Villepreux and Les Clayes at the end of the platform.
The cause of the breakdown was reported differently in various newspapers. Le Petit Parisien and Le Petit Journal stated that an axle and a rod had broken on the locomotive.Le Petit Parisien, 19 June 1910, p.1; Le Petit Journal, 19 June 1910, p.1 Other papers, more numerous, claimed that the distribution gear had failed, several bolts having sheared off a valve casing.Le Figaro, 19 June 1910, p.1; Le Matin, 19 June 1910, p.1 An engineer of the Ouest-État railway directing clearance operations told a journalist that one of the boiler tubes had burst.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5694654/f2.item.zoom Le Matin, 20 June 1910, p.2 Finally, when questioned in the Senate, the Minister of Public Works, Alexandre Millerand, attributed the accident to "the loss of a brake".https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7614967n/f1.item.r=%22m%C3%A9canicien%20Leduc%22.zoom Le Radical, 1 July 1910, pp.1–2
After more than three-quarters of an hour of unsuccessful efforts to restart the disabled locomotive, it was judged unfit to continue. A replacement engine was requested by telegraph from the Versailles-Matelots depot. It was while awaiting the relief locomotive that the collision occurred, though here again press reports diverged. A majority of newspapers related the facts as though the broken-down train had remained on the main track at Villepreux–Les Clayes station and was struck in its entirety by the express. Le Petit Journal reported that "of the thirteen cars of the local train, eleven had been crushed".https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k619026w/f1.item.zoom Le Petit Journal, 19 June 1910, p.1 Le Matin added that in the collision, the driver (Sérons) and guard (Bardet) of the local train had been thrown onto the track and injured.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k569464r/f3.item.zoom Le Matin, 19 June 1910, p.2 Confirming this version implicitly, Le Figaro published a letter from a reader who wondered why the disabled train had not been shunted onto a siding.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k288878f/f4.item Le Figaro, 23 June 1910, p.4
In reality, before the accident the crew of the disabled engine and the station staff had begun manoeuvres to clear the train to a siding. After the train was split in two, the locomotive managed to haul only the front section (emptied of passengers) a short distance, about 100 metres, leaving the rear four coaches and the luggage van at the platform. Some passengers alighted, while others remained aboard. The stationmaster, M. Cozic, expected the locomotive of the following train to remove these vehicles. He had set both the distant and home signals to danger and dispatched a railwayman with a red flag to warn the oncoming express.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6190278/f1.item.zoom Le Petit Journal, 20 June 1910, p.1
Meanwhile, express no. 577 for Granville had left the Gare des Invalides at 17:14. It consisted of thirteen vehicles, including a dining car at the front, hauled by a recently delivered locomotive, no. 2794 (class 230),http://roland.arzul.pagesperso-orange.fr/materiel/traction/ouest_230.htm Les 230 locomotives of the Ouest network assigned to the French State Railways following the takeover of the Ouest company in 1909. It was driven by engineer Henri Leduc and fireman Lecordier, both from the Argentan depot. Its first stop was Versailles-Chantiers, where it arrived at 17:45 and where the crew were informed they would make an additional stop at Nonant-le-Pin. The loading of numerous parcels delayed departure by two minutes, and a further two were lost at Saint-Cyr due to a closed distant signal.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k752298x/f2.item.zoom L'Aurore, 20 June 1910, p.2
Keen to make up time, the crew ran the locomotive at full pressure. While attempting to feed water into the boiler, the injector on the driver's side failed, and the safety valve lifted. Amid a cloud of steam, Leduc tried repeatedly to restart the faulty device by purging it. As he did so, and while the fireman was occupied breaking up briquettes,https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k569466h/f1.item.r=%22m%C3%A9canicien%20Leduc%22.zoom Le Matin, 21 June 1910, p.1 the train passed the distant signal for Villepreux station, which was at danger and accompanied by an audible warning. Believing the signal should have been clear since the preceding local train was not due to be overtaken until Dreux, Leduc presumed it was open and, without checking, sounded the "line clear" whistle as regulations required.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5964248/f2.item.zoom La Presse, 21 June 1910, p.2 A kilometre further on, descending a gradient at , he suddenly saw the home signal at Villepreux–Les Clayes at danger and the railwayman waving his red flag about ahead. Leduc applied the emergency brake, but the distance was too short to prevent collision with the stationary coaches.Based on analysis of the Flaman speed recorder. See La Presse, 22 June 1910, p.2
The accident
In full view of horrified bystanders at the station, train 577 struck the five stationary vehicles at about .Estimated speed given in L'Humanité, 21 June 1910, . The impact pushed them for about , climbing over and crushing them, scattering debris across both platforms, and tearing down telegraph wires. The locomotive and its tender then detached and toppled on either side of the track, near the crossing keeper's house. Behind them, the baggage van, the dining car, and the first four coaches of the express telescoped. Almost immediately, fire broke out from the engine's firebox and the dining car's stoves, spreading quickly through the wreckage, fueled by the wooden carriages and the gas lighting reservoirs of the coaches.Le Petit Parisien, 22 June 1910, .
Later it was noted that another train from Granville should have been passing through the station on the opposite track at that very moment. However, it had run two minutes ahead of schedule, and this providential advance prevented a catastrophic secondary accident.La Lanterne, 21 June 1910, .
Rescue Although physically uninjured, the stationmaster, M. Cozic, suffered a severe psychological shock from the catastrophe and proved incapable of taking any initiative. One of his colleagues, M. Lépinay, stationmaster at Colleville (Seine-Inférieure), happened to be on site,According to some newspapers (e.g. Le Matin) he was on vacation in the area, others (e.g. Le Petit Journal) reported he was traveling on the local train, while others (e.g. La Lanterne) said he was aboard the express. and took over to organize the first rescue efforts and re-establish telegraphic communication.Le Journal, 20 June 1910, .
While awaiting outside assistance, surviving passengers, railway staff, and passers-by stopped at the level crossing aided the victims, especially in trying to extract those trapped in carriages threatened by flames. The dead were laid out in the waiting room, which was turned into a makeshift morgue. The most seriously injured were taken into Villepreux, either to a doctor's house or to a local orphanage. Later, some were moved to the hospital in Versailles, while others were evacuated by a relief train to the Montparnasse station and distributed among Paris hospitals. Amid the general confusion, the driver and fireman of the striking train, both injured, remained at the site for two hours before being placed on a relief train back to Dreux, then continued to Argentan where they received treatment at home. The small rural station, little more than an isolated chalet, had no firefighting equipment or even a water supply. Faced with the magnitude of the blaze, the first rescuers were soon forced to withdraw, managing only to move by hand the rear carriages of the express that had remained on the track.Le Petit Parisien, 19 June 1910, . Firefighters arrived later from Villepreux and then from Versailles on a relief train that left that city at 19:00, but they too had to resign themselves to waiting until the flames burned themselves out around midnight.Le Temps, 20 June 1910, .
In the meantime, the prefect of Seine-et-Oise, Auguste Autrand, and the Minister of Public Works, Alexandre Millerand, arrived by automobile, while two additional relief trains were dispatched from Montparnasse at 20:30 and 22:00.La Lanterne, 20 June 1910, .
Clearing operations were quickly undertaken by railway workers, assisted by soldiers of the 5th Engineer Regiment of Versailles, and even cadets of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. Despite the throngs of onlookers that slowed their work, traffic was restored the next day at 16:30 on a single track, and on both tracks by 01:10 two days later.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2401571/f3.item.zoom Le Temps, 22 June 1910,
A year later, at the request of the mayor of Les Clayes, the silver medal of the Société des sauveteurs de Seine-et-Oise was awarded to M. Lépinay and three other rescuers in recognition of their efforts.L'Univers, 17 June 1911, . ter from Villepreux and Versailles. The fire burned until midnight due to lack of water supplies.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2401558/f1.item.zoom Le Temps, 20 June 1910, p.1.
Casualties