Volgograd residents were reminded of the terrible accident of 1930: 4 dead and 14 injured

A gloomy page in the history of the Volgograd railways was recently recalled by the TG channel “Catastrophes of the Soviet Country”: on September 23, 1930, a major accident occurred at the station of Stalingrad, the consequences of which still look frightening.

That day, the driver of the freight train Zhdanov grossly violated traffic rules: ignoring the closed semaphore, he introduced the train to the station at a speed of 70 km / h - unacceptably high for maneuvers within the station. As a result, there was a collision with a locomotive, which at that moment was gaining water. The impact caused the wagons to derail, and a chain reaction led to the destruction of a passenger train standing on the adjacent line.

The scale of the emergency was serious: 17 cars were broken. The tragedy claimed the lives of four people, another 14 passengers and railway workers suffered: four were seriously injured, ten were diagnosed with injuries of varying severity.

Already in October 1930, a court was held, where they examined not only the direct fault of the driver, but also systemic problems at the station. Four defendants, including Zhdanov himself, received from 10 months to one and a half years of imprisonment – their punishment was replaced by forced labor. However, the court dealt with representatives of administrative and technical staff, who were found guilty of falling labor discipline and negligence. Tsamov was sentenced to 10 years of correctional labor, Yaroshchuk to 8 years, Ivanov to 3 years in prison.

This story is not just a dry chronicle of the disaster. It reminds us that a single mistake on a railway can turn into dozens of broken fates, and the responsibility for security lies not only with the one who drives the train, but also with those who are responsible for order at the station.