# Runaway train

A runaway train is a type of railroad incident in which unattended rolling stock is accidentally allowed to roll onto the main line, a moving train loses enough braking power to be unable to stop in safety, or a train operates at unsafe speeds due to loss of operator control. If the uncontrolled rolling stock derails or hits another train, it will result in a train wreck.
A deadman's control, if the brakes are working, can prevent unattended rolling stock from moving.
A railway air brake can fail if valves on the pipe between each wagon are accidentally closed; the 1953 Pennsylvania Railroad train wreck and the 1988 Gare de Lyon train accident were results of a valve accidentally closed by the crew, reducing braking power.
A parked train or cut off cars may also run away if not properly tied down with a sufficient number of hand brakes.

## Incidents

Accidents and incidents involving defective or improperly-set railway brakes include:
| Date | Incident | Location | Cause | Details | Ref |
| February 25, 2024 | | Jammu, India | Driver negligence | A 53-wagon Indian Railways train loaded with stone chips ran for 70 kilometres (43 mi) through the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, starting at Kathua in Jammu before being stopped by railway officials at Hoshiarpur. The driver and his assistant had gotten off the train while it was on a slope. The incident took place between 7:25 am and 9:00, and the train managed to run through five stations and reached speeds of nearly 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). | |
| August 22, 2019 | | Upper Palatinate, Germany | Improper brake setup | A 1900 t freight train with two engines ran without brakes 90 kilometres (56 mi) through Upper Palatine, starting at Cheb near the Czech border and coming to a stop safely on flat terrain in Irrenlohe. Brakes were ineffective due to a closed angle cock between the locomotives and the first car of the train. | |
| February 27, 2019 | Ramses Station rail disaster | Ramses Station, Cairo, Egypt | Train driver left train to fight with another train driver | After the driver exited the train, which had no brakes applied, it entered Ramses Station at high speed and crashed through a barrier. The locomotive's fuel tanks ruptured and exploded upon impact, killing 25 people and injuring 50 others. | |
| 2018 | | Port Hedland, Australia | Train driver left engine to inspect a wagon | An iron ore train consisting of 4 locomotives and 268 loaded wagons en route from Newman to Port Hedland (operated by BHP on the Pilbara railways) travelled driverless for 92 kilometres (57 mi) at high speed, after the driver went out to inspect. The company deliberately derailed the train to avoid an uncontrolled incident. | |
| 2017 | | Wadi, India | | An electric locomotive traveled without a driver for 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) after it was being swapped for a diesel locomotive to pull the train on a non-electrified section of track. Railway personnel chased after the locomotive by motorbike, and the train was stopped safely after 50 minutes | |
| December 22, 2017 | | North of Brenner, Austria | Improper brake setup | While setting up the lead engine, the driver closed the angle cock between lead and slave unit to perform the ATP test. He forgot to open the cock before departure. The train went down the 2.5% grade North ramp of the Brenner Railway and reached a speed of 125 kilometres per hour (78 mph) before cars at the end of the train derailed and broke off emptying the brake pipe. Despite the second locomotive being coupled to the brake pipe, it did not vent it because the emergency brake signal from the first unit was not transmitted over the train bus. | |
| 2016 | | Landen, Belgium | Driver error | The driver left the cabin to do some check-ups on the train when it started moving. After 30 minutes and 12 kilometres (7.5 mi), the train was stopped by a driver who jumped into the train's cab. No one was injured nor did the train hit anything. | |
| 2013 | Lac-Mégantic rail disaster | Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada | Combination of neglect, defective locomotive, poor maintenance, driver error, flawed operating procedures, weak regulatory oversight, lack of safety redundancy | The train driver did not set enough hand brakes (5 on the engines, one on the caboose, and one on the boxcar) to stop the 72-car crude oil train from rolling down the slope, the train rolled down the slope and derailed in a curve at high speed. Several tank cars burst and caught fire, killing 47 people | |
| 2012 | | Ion Luca Caragiale village, Romania | Improper brake setup | A freight train ran away from Lon Luca Caragiale Station because of the improper brakes setting and hit a Dacia car on a level crossing, killing 2 people | |
| 2011, August 11 | | Mainline between Yeral and Simskaya, Chelyabinsk oblast, Russia | Brake control deactivated during en-route maintenance | A freight train with inoperative brakes gained speed on a long descent and collided with a rear end of another freight train, killing the locomotive crew of 2. | |
| 2010 | 2010 Pretoria train accident | Pretoria, Johannesburg, South Africa | During a locomotive changeover, the carriages ran away out of control for 12 miles (19 km) until they derailed at Pretoria | 7 injuries and 3 deaths were reported with total damage to the carriages of about R15,000,000. | |
| June 15, 2010 | | Braz, West ramp of Arlbergbahn, Austria | Technical defect | A low hanging air coupling between two permanently coupled car racks got kicked by rails laying in track. It broke in two and the rear part ended up kinked and jammed in the underframe of the car rack. Air was bottled in the rear part of the train leaving the brakes released. Train could only apply brakes of the locomotive and the first car on the 3.1% grade. Train derailed, driver was slightly injured. | |
| 2007 | Benaleka train accident | Congo-Kinshasa | Brake failure | 100 killed | |
| May 17, 2006 | | Switzerland near Thun | Improper brake setup | During the brake test it was not discovered that the angle cock between the locomotive and the first car was still closed. The construction train run down the 1.5% grade of the North access ramp to the Lötschberg Tunnel. Dispatchers did have another option then diverting the train in an active construction site, which had to be evacuated on short notice. 3 killed. The incident inspired the motion picture Der Geisterzug von Spiez. | |
| December 19, 2005 | Świnna rail crash | | Improperly manufactured composite brake blocks caused loss of braking power in EN57-840 EMU operating as passenger train between Sucha Beskidzka and Żywiec. | The cooperation between the crews of Sucha-Żywiec and Żywiec-Sucha trains and train dispatcher in Jeleśnia resulted in controlled collision near Świnna, Silesian Voivodeship instead of head-on collision. Both drivers and 6 passengers were injured. | |
| June 20, 2003 | | Los Angeles, United States | A cut of 31 freight cars rolled away after they were improperly secured and left unattended in a yard east of Los Angeles. | The train was derailed in Commerce at an estimated speed of 95 mph (153 km/h). 13 people suffered minor injuries. | - | Feb 17, 2004 | Nishapur, Iran | runaway train wagons crashed into the community in the middle of the night and exploded, resulting in Iran's deadliest rail disaster Nishapur. |
| 2003 | 2003 Melbourne runaway train | Melbourne, Australia | | 11 people injured | |
| 2002 | Igandu train disaster | Tanzania | | 281 killed | |
| 2002 | Tenga rail disaster | Mozambique | | 192 killed | |
| May 15, 2001 | CSX 8888 incident | Ohio, United States | Incorrectly configured dynamic brake. Train driver left train to pull switch, and was unable to get back onboard. | CSX #8888, an SD40-2, ran away under power without a crew after the engineer incorrectly set the locomotive's dynamic brake and was unable to get back into the locomotive after it began moving. The train - nicknamed Crazy Eights - proceeded to travel at speeds of over 50 km/h for just under 2 hours, being successfully brought to a halt by a second locomotive's crew, who were able to couple to the rear of the train and apply their brakes. The incident inspired the 2010 motion picture Unstoppable. | |
| 1999 | | Martín Coronado, Argentina | Train's brakes failed during motoman's distraction, passing by six stations without him. | Stopped by a passerby train keeper after noticing hysterical people inside the train. | |
| 1989 | | Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States | | 67-car Burlington Northern coal train runaway | |
| May 12th, 1989 | San Bernardino train disaster | California, United States | Train weight miscalculated and several locomotives with defective dynamic brakes. | A 6-engine (4 in front, 2 in rear) freight train carrying 69 loaded hopper cars lost control coming over Cajon Pass near San Bernardino, California. Due to the lack of dynamic brakes, and the air brakes melting due to the weight and speed, derailed on a sharp corner at 110 mph. The resulting collision killed two of the five crewmembers and two residents in San Bernardino. Also led to a pipeline explosion nearly a week later during cleanup, killing two more residents. | |
| February 2nd, 1989 | 1989 Helena train wreck | Helena, Montana | Failure of train crew to set brakes properly | 49 cars of a Montana Rail Link freight train that had been decoupled from their locomotives by a train crew on Mullan Pass rolled backwards down the pass, traveling nine miles back into the city of Helena and colliding with a work train at a railway crossing near the center of the community. The collision resulted in a fire and explosion that damaged Carroll College and other nearby structures, knocked out power to most of the town, and led to the evacuation of residents within an area of 2 square miles (5.2 km2) due to concerns of possible toxic chemical release. | |
| 1988 | | Wasserburg am Inn, Upper Bavaria, Germany | On New Years Eve morning an EMU of Munich S-Bahn became a runaway train after the train driver went to the toilet in the terminal station Ebersberg. | Train run the complete line till Wasserburg, where it ended at a buffer stop. The engineer was in the second engine while the conductor was in the caboose back at the rail yard. No injuries, but equipment was damaged. | |
| March 9, 1987 | | New Brunswick, Canada | Air hoses between locomotives & consist disconnected, communications error with the mine staff and the engineer | Canadian National ore train derailed at Bathurst Mining Camp | |
| 1972 | Chester General rail crash | England | Brake failure | Train collided with parked DMU. | |
| 1959 | Jersey Central "ghost engine" incident | New Jersey, United States | Incident suspected of being sabotage as throttle was open, and air brakes were set for running. | A single ALCO RS-3 locomotive of the Central Railroad of New Jersey left a terminal yard in Jersey City as a runaway and covered 22 miles in 36 minutes before it was stopped by a crewed locomotive on the tracks ahead. | |
| 1957 | | Chapel-en-le-Frith, Great Britain | Broken steam pipe made it impossible for crew to apply brakes | | |
| 1953 | Federal Express train wreck | Union Station, Washington, DC | Valve closed by badly designed buffer plate. | The 16-car passenger train failed to stop in time before jumping the buffers at Union Station. No one was killed, but the engine was left in the basement due to the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower occurring so that other trains could come into the station. | |
| 1948 | | Wädenswil, Switzerland | Driver of the crocodile locomotive did not realise that he was in electric traction instead of dynamic brake while going downhill on a 5% grade. | Winter sport train was guided deliberately in a siding. 21 killed | |
| 1944 | Torre del Bierzo rail disaster | Spain | Brake failure on overloaded passenger train. | Train which collided with another in a tunnel; a third train was unaware and also crashed into it. | |
| 1898 | | Asheboro, North Carolina | Aberdeen and Asheboro Railroad crew uncouples a locomotive from a freight train without setting the brakes on the cars properly | The uncoupled cars roll downhill to collide with the locomotive, pinning the engine crew. | |
| 1895 | Montparnasse derailment | Paris, France | Paris Express overran the buffer stop at its Gare Montparnasse terminus when its air brakes failed | Train crashed through the entire station, and fell onto the Place de Rennes killing one woman; five on the train and one in the street were injured. | |
| 1889 | Armagh rail disaster | Ireland | | 80 people killed, 260 injured. Backwards runaway led to change in law. | |
| 1874 | Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash | Oxford, England | | Caused by fracture of a carriage wheel. | |