Eckwersheim derailment

Common card · No. 336366

On 14 November 2015, a TGV train derailed in Eckwersheim, Alsace, France, while performing commissioning trials on the second phase of the LGV Est high-speed rail line, which was scheduled to open for commercial service five months later. The derailment resulted in 11 deaths and 42 injuries. It was the first fatal derailment in the history of the TGV and the third derailment since the TGV entered commercial service in 1981, as well as the deadliest train crash in France since the Gare de Lyon crash in 1988, which killed 56 people. The test train was traveling eastbound on the southern track when it entered a curve at 265 km/h (165 mph)—90 km/h (56 mph) over its assigned speed—causing the rear bogie of the lead engine to derail to the left (outside of curve) due to centrifugal forces. The lead engine separated from the rest of the train, and the rear of the lead engine struck the concrete parapet on the abutment to a bridge over the Marne–Rhine Canal. The engine slid along the left parapet...

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