The Gare de Lyon Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

[@Zimin_Anatoly2000]

Huge respect to Andre Tanguy He is a real hero of this tragedy...

[@classicmicroscopy9398]

It's cases like this that make you appreciate the complexity of many serious accidents. It's often a chain of unfortunate cause and effect events rather than a simple mistake.

[@jtgd]

Good example of a recipe for disaster

[@Transilvanian90]

Yup, in aviation we call it the swiss cheese model (imagine slices of swiss cheese with holes in them, multiple holes often have to line up for a disaster to happen).

[@berenscott8999]

When humans panic and do stupid stuff.

[@rundom32]

You can see the same in basically any air disaster. Planes are incredibly safe machines, and it takes multiple redundant safety failures or operator errors to cause a sever accident. In situations like this, it's almost always a series of unfortunate and unlikely events that lead to the tragedy. Multiple small mistakes that quickly build into a large one

[@berenscott8999]

@@Transilvanian90 Yeah, not really. It's like this story I heard on a podcast, where a guy's van is overheating, so he's just panicking putting different fluids into the vehicle. Long story short, he ends up destroying the engine, he didn't address the main problem and instead created a completely new issue. Basically the wrong fluid / oil ended up in the wrong area of the engine. So, during a panic, only wrong choices are made. We never make good choices during a panic, or as is said "the Prometheus school of running away from large objects"

[@kyleclark4449]

Andre was a hero. I wouldn't have had the mental fortitude to make that order myself. He knew that he would die, but his duty was to his passengers. Rest in peace, sir.

[@Stand_with_Israel]

He probably thought he could both make the announcement and survive I feel like many of these people might not do what they did if they genuinely knew they would die Still a hero none the less

[@ithinkdoyou]

@Patriots Nation 4 life honestly I don't think that most people in these kind of situations think about the consequences for themselves, time sorta slows down in a crisis if you are calm, and not panic, but you don't have time to think about tomorrow or even 5 minutes from now, you just have this moment and you have things to do right now

[@frankcastle9691]

Amen.

[@bilindalaw-morley161]

I don't think I could have done it. It's amazing that he had the calmness of mind to decide to stay instead of fleeing.

[@bilindalaw-morley161]

@@ithinkdoyou I agree. Even if Patriots is right and he didn't think he'd die, there has to have been even just a second or two of terror that felt like hours.

[@mothsanchez944]

Never ceases to amaze me that folks like Andre are willing to stick it out until the end to save as many people as possible.

[@judeirwin2222]

Consider the orchestra on the Titanic, which continued to play as other people fled to lifeboats. Consider the Capitol Police in DC, who defended it and besieged Congress members from the violent MAGA mob’s weapons until they were crushed or beaten grievously. There is enormous bravery among us every day, often shown without fanfare or glory seeking. And there is also enormous cowardice, largely from the bullies and fools who want nothing but more power, more control over us, more money, more hero worship.

[@pamelaleigh4225]

​@@judeirwin2222 yes. Perfectly stated. Thank you.

[@sumfagola]

@@judeirwin2222 The only Capitol Police fatalities there were heart attacks and self-executions after the event.

[@xavquinlan481]

Seconds before Disaster’s episode on this was also fantastic. It highlighted how Andre Tanguy’s actions were commendable , similar to Coleman’s in the Halifax Disaster

[@lewist379]

Seconds from Disaster is just a fantastic documentary in general, but totally agree!

[@RFGfotografie]

I really miss this docu series.

[@KyoushaPumpItUp]

I was a kid when I watched that episode back in National Geographic Channel.

[@MrMarinus18]

I think by his choices it's clear that he grew up with Seconds from Disaster. I'm pretty sure the king's cross fire is up next and the Kursk sinking will come soon.

[@thetravelingsuitcase2530]

I watched that episode on youtube when I was six. It strangely gives me nostalgia

[@zacbru]

As a former SNCF worker and a Gare de Lyon dweller, I had many occasion to get in the tunnel. The slope is steep and the trains go down fast. Sometimes I think about it and get the chills.

[@DodongoManoof]

👎

[@loumoon7660]

Wow. Very interesting

[@MlleMDM]

Merci, c’est toujours un accident présent dans les esprits effectivement 😢

[@penskepc2374]

It kind of gives me chills the lady only got a fine for such ridiculous selfishness.

[@tomservo56954]

The CF was the same game that James Bond played?

[@gingercube688]

"her motives unclear" It was pretty damn obvious that she wanted to get off at that station and didn't realise this train wasn't going to on the new timetable

[@deborahwood7089]

Paraphrasing from Wikipedia The person who pulled the emergency brake was a young mother named Odile Mirrior. She told investigators that she normally used train 153944's stop at the Le Vert de Maisons station to pick up her children from school. However, she was unaware that the new summer timetable meant that her train would not stop at Le Vert de Maisons. So not wanting to keep her children waiting, she pulled the emergency brake and left the train.

[@Victor-sk8by]

Agreed, she inconvenienced everybody on that train just because SHE had to get off.. typical. I hope guilt destroys her mind.

[@titandarknight2698]

@@Victor-sk8by She just stopped a train. Bruh. Im pretty sure it's not her fault this accident happened.

[@jamietran9472]

@@titandarknight2698 it’s called emergency brake for a reason lol

[@geslinam9703]

Or maybe she was psychic and had a bad feeling.

[@elizabethw.6154]

I like how you also add the after effects of the tragedy in these stories. Like if conditions got better or positively changed.

[@Frazzled_Chameleon]

Imagine the entitlement of thinking that using the emergency brake because the train isn’t stopping where you want it to, and inconveniencing hundreds of other people, is the right thing to do.

[@ericsu0630]

This is pretty similar to the 2021 Hualien train derailment in Taiwan, in which the mistakes of one single person caused a deadly chain of events that killed dozens. A flatbed truck from a construction site rolled down a hill onto the tracks just before a tunnel. A train came and hit the truck, derailed, and everything piled into the tunnel which was barely wide enough for 1 train to pass. I will always remember the interview they did with one of the first responders, he was diagnosed with PTSD because the scene was so gruesome. This was what he said: "It was like walking into a human blender, it was dark, there were body parts everywhere, the air was mixed with blood so it was difficult to breathe. I could hear people screaming and crying everywhere but I couldn't see or reach them. If hell ever existed, that was it."

[@maryeckel9682]

That sounds horrible!

[@lobstrosity7163]

God really does look after us all.

[@leighirvine]

God, how awful 😔

[@gerrittlighthart]

@@lobstrosity7163 "God looks after us all?" I hope this is sarcasm, because it's things like this that make the existence of a compassionate and omnipotent god a complete fantasy.

[@nancypolitowski7822]

My bbsbbqs

[@bobblebardsley]

This happened on my 5th birthday (which makes it the 35th anniversary this summer, I just realised). I think of all the videos on this channel, this one might be the absolute most unfortunate sequence of events. The timetable change, the mother trying to get to her kids on time, the driver's actions on the brakes, the skipped station to make up lost time, the downhill approach, the driver's *other* actions, the general alarm freezing the points, and the packed train waiting at the platform. Really feels like something out of Final Destination when so many freak occurrences have to coincide (including the driver making multiple mistakes that he frankly should not have made).

[@marvindebot3264]

It's called the Swiss Cheese Effect, when all the holes line up bad things happen and this one took a fair few holes to align to make it so.

[@bobblebardsley]

@@marvindebot3264 Definitely feels like more holes than cheese

[@Ryno2094]

But if it wasn't for driver incompetence none of this would have ever happened.

[@bobblebardsley]

@@Ryno2094 And if the mom didn't pull the emergency cord, the driver wouldn't have needed to reset the brakes, and if the timetable wasn't changed the mom wouldn't have needed to stop the train. I do agree that most of the fault is on the driver though but there's plenty of other circumstances that might have prevented it from happening.

[@tomlibooe]

M.. 3q0

[@godblesstrolls]

9:32 If I die and this is what they give me for a memorial then I want somebody to get fired!

[@alice45-fgd-456drt]

lmao best comment

[@jenniferryersejones9876]

I paused for awhile, staring at it, trying to figure out how on earth it memorialized the victims. I could not!

[@thaliabirrueta8456]

Honestly, a plaque detailing the events of that day with names of the victims would have been just fine.

[@LilAnnThrax]

I don't love insomnia but I DO love getting your notifications at 3:00am. Thank you for your amazing videos.

[@myrojyn]

3 AM gang rise up!

[@LilAnnThrax]

@@myrojyn might as well since we aren't sleepin 😂

[@rebeccacarrington1144]

Do yourself a favor and mute notifications while you sleep, your brain chemistry will thank you

[@LilAnnThrax]

@@rebeccacarrington1144 this is really great advice, unfortunately it would only work if I did ever sleep. I've had 8 sleep studies in 2 years and they can't figure my brain out so I just raw dog life on one 16-18hr sleep per 4-7 days. It's unhinged and unhealthy but it's all I got. But yes, no phones is good sleep hygiene for most!

[@DodongoManoof]

My ear is ringing 8[

[@Nostripe361]

I agree with the Union here. Granted the driver was not blameless in everything but I feel that pinning all the blame on him was the company trying to get out of fixing major issues with their system that led up to what happened.

[@jdmb03]

He bled the brakes, it was his fault. He had no right to bleed the brakes.

[@hellomark1]

@@jdmb03 Like @Nostripe361 said, he wasn't blameless (he could have also activated the electric brakes as pointed out), but the overall alarm system was not only pointless, but created more problems than it solved, in averting the collision. The problems were systemic. One person should not unintentionally be able to cause such a disaster while trying to prevent it.

[@Transilvanian90]

There were definitely issues in the alarm system, especially how it prevented the train from being sent away from the station, and kept the stationary train in place until it was hit.

[@KebabMusicLtd]

He didn't seem to know what he was doing. Turning off the main brake valve, bleeding the brakes, contacting the station but not telling them which train he was driving. I cannot speak about company policy as I don't know what that was in 1988, but the fact is, the driver is the captain of his ship. He should know that if anything goes wrong whilst it is under his control, that he should follow policy and call the technician out to check the problem. Ironically, once he started it moving again, that train was never going to stop until it hit something. All he could then do is place his head between his legs and kissing his arse goodbye.

[@lowtechredneck6704]

He didn't deserve all the blame, but he did deserve to serve his entire sentence (four years is already extremely generous for 56 counts of negligent manslaughter).

[@vustvaleo8068]

Andre was basically doing the "captain goes down with his ship" principle, RIP to him and the passengers.

[@Renard380]

As a train driver from a neighboring country using the same brakes system i remember being shocked as i heard about that driver's course of actions for the first time... I'm not sure what the rules were in France at the time but i'm convinced they didn't allow a driver to just bleed the cylinders and depart without a test of the brakes. Very sad accident made even worse by the fact that it was SO preventable...

[@Chellz801]

Complacency really kills. He probably didn’t think he was doing anything wrong, unfortunately there’s a culture in almost every workplace of “well we do this all the time so no big deal!” And it sometimes leads to tragedy. I work for a railroad as well and ever now and again something will happen that makes us all shudder and wonder what was going through the person or persons heads. This is just a reminder for the rest of us to always follow protocol no matter how annoying it may seem to be, they were written in blood.

[@l.l.203]

I drive trains in Sweden. If I would ever have to bleed any brakes, I would have do a stationary braketest before continuing. And if the train can not show me digitally on a screen that the individual brakes work thought-out the train, I would have to check on indicators in the outside of each individual brakes. And then I would have to do a moving break test when I get to approximately 90 km/h. I can understand the first mistake of this driver but not the rest. But granted, this was a while ago and the attitudes may have been more slacked. I guess we do learn from our predicesers.

[@bluetickbeagles116]

The mOtHeR 🤡shouldn’t have even pulled the emergency stop in the first place! Send that bytch to prison!!

[@Jason-rn4jk]

As a former conductor in the states it’s mind boggling he cut out the locomotive brakes and proceeded to bleed off each car individually, that’s far from routine rectifying anything with the brake system. They already walked the train bleeding it off but didn’t do a brake set test confirming the last car was set??!! It makes absolutely no sense, especially for someone that’s been operating since a teen and was now in his 40’s.

[@adrianguggisberg3656]

Bleeding all brakes of all cars, no stationary brake test, forgot he had a magnetic brake? How is that even possible? How can a driver make so many mistakes? We all make mistakes, but this just doesn't make sense.

[@unlapras9365]

My mother knows someone who was on the waiting train that day. When passengers were told to evacuate she jumped out of the train and went away without looking back. Many were not so lucky.

[@AustrianChaos]

The sequence of events in this tragedy is just one "oh no!" after another. It seems almost like something out of "Final Destination"... condolences to all the victims' families. :(

[@elliottprice6084]

Andre Tungay's actions were heroic, saving the lives of passengers while sacrificing his own. RIP Andre

[@sspotter1978]

I wait for this every week. Congratulations on cracking a MILLION!

[@SuperMixedd]

I commend your efforts in pronouncing the french words

[@bartfoster1311]

It is scary how easily one's actions can lead to such an accident. Hopefully they more thoroughly trained all drivers on how to properly operate the brakes!

[@heliotrope6217]

Perhaps stupid females will refrain from using the Alarme, just to leave the train. I am female.

[@RBMapleLeaf]

It's true, that the driver (Daniel Saulin) should've called maintenance about a defect in his train rather than cut supply to the brakes and manually disarm them and yes as you said about another brake they don't usually do. It's rather scary that the passenger Ordeal Mirrore (I think I said her name wrong) who is a Partisan French resident I think pushed the emergency brake as the train was scheduled to not stop at her station Vert De Maisons.

[@PruneauYT]

It's a great example of the Swiss cheese theory.

[@thecornedbeefcouncil9792]

@@PruneauYT it is, very much so. So many things had to line up to allow this tragedy to happen (as is often the case).

[@PungiFungi]

@@RBMapleLeaf , one is tempted to laid the blame on that woman, but activating an emergency brake should not have this domino effect. Imagine if the brake was pulled because someone fell into the tracks and then this wind up happening.

[@GreatFox42]

I think this was a case of that Swiss Cheese phenomenon. Just the perfect alignment of things going wrong in just the right ways to lead to the worst possible outcome.

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Just what I need to watch before my morning commute. Really wish you'd do the 1950 Kew Gardens LIRR crash.

[@Mrsjam96]

Go to the video description and there is a link there to suggest incidents

[@stephcarlofc]

A future video you can do on the deadliest train accident in French history, albeit not during peacetime, was the Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment that occurred on the 12th of December 1917. 675 French soldiers were killed.

[@marvindebot3264]

It has been covered, if not by this channel, maybe by Plainly Difficult?

[@peronik349]

Good video as usual. On the Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne disaster of 1917 there is an excellent French documentary of 60 min: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2m1doKkod2Fr6c French subtitles can be translated into English

[@duncancurtis5971]

Aka Modane Saussaz 1917, during France worst year of the war as the poilus threatened revolt as done in Paths of Glory. An overloaded troop train spun out of control down a steep gradient, caught fire and crashed. Most of the occupants burnt to death and could not be identified.

[@cr10001]

@@duncancurtis5971 That sounds uncannily similar to Quintinshill 1915 (the worst railway disaster in Britain). Except that was a multiple collision not a runaway train, but it involved a troop train and a fire.

[@O-P-96]

@@cr10001 I still remember that story, especially the part where officers and regular soldiers had to shoot their own comrades to give them a quick death. It must have been horrible for them all.

[@MattSipka]

Just think, if that lady didn’t pull the emergency stop like she was on a city bus, non of this would’ve happened.

[@SudrianTales]

The issue was thr French railway system and its equipment and training, not some woman. This was a ticking time bomb and one that could've been used by terrorists at the time if someone put it together

[@shards0fwords]

@@SudrianTales agreed

[@Moonlakes]

you really cant blame this on the woman. emergency brakes are for emergencies, and one may argue if this was an emergency or not, but THIS should NEVER be a result of pulling the emergency brake.

[@neilbadger4262]

Years ago I did an accident investigation into something and I concluded that an accident is when it is only a financial loss. Disaster is when lives are lost. Unfortunately, both seem to be essential in developing and improving safety standards and we hope that lessons learned are not forgotten. It is only because of Titanic sinking, that lifeboats became more of a thing. And it is disasters like Gare de Lyon that safety systems are forced to improve. It is sad for the lives lost, but more lives are saved as a result.

[@SudrianTales]

@@neilbadger4262 Going out on a limb to defend the Titanic designers, she was overstocked on lifeboats to the letter of the law. Furthermore, lifeboats werent that safe back then, especially if the wind and seas picked up.

[@manuelacosta9463]

What a messy chain of events that led to this nightmarish tragedy. Sorry to say I've never heard of this disaster, notice how the pieces always seem to fall into place with horrific consequences.

[@neilkurzman4907]

That’s why they call it a chain of events. If you break a single link then the accident doesn’t happen. Sometimes the chain of events is convoluted and very specific. They often involve multiple people ignoring safety rules

[@FasterLower]

I'm astounded that the brake system is not fail safe. On UK trains if there is no brake pressure then the brakes are fully on - the pressure forces the brake off. So "bleeding" the system would have caused the brakes to stay on. This seems like a bit of a fundamental design error to me!

[@alexandernordstrom1617]

The train was equipped with that same type of fail-safe mechanism. My understanding is that this is what prevented the train from moving when the main brake pipe valve was inadvertently closed, and that the fail-safe mechanism was only defeated by the subsequent action of manually unlocking each brake. Another safeguard that would seem to make sense is that trying to pull other cars with a closed main brake pipe valve closed should be detected and prevented.

[@andrewlucia865]

Train brakes are not like a trucks brakes. The way they work is by using a charged resivior of air pressure on the car itself, which is what actually applies the brakes when the brake pipe pressure is reduced. The brakes are not sprung onto the wheels, it is air pressure that keeps them applied. There is a return spring, but this is to pull the brakes off the wheels when the brake piston is no longer recieving air pressure. What the driver did was bleed the pressure out of the local reservoirs on the cars, hence why the brakes disengaged. Also, this feature is common to air brake systems around the world. One of the reasons is actually to allow cars to be moved around without their air brakes, specifically to make yard shunting easier. If a cars brakes had to be charged everytime it had to be moved around a yard, it would make shunting jobs take forever. As such the air brakes are only charged and activated for runs on the main line. Train air brakes are fail-safe, but only against an unexpected train separation on the line. If you manually bleed pressure out of the system, or let them sit long enough without being recharged by the brake pipe, they will disengage.

[@FasterLower]

@@andrewlucia865 Thank you very much for this, very informative.

[@neilkurzman4907]

It did fail safe. The brakes were locked. He bypassed that safety by bleeding or the air out of the system. I assume you’re talking about modern air brakes which lock when they have no pressure.

[@cr10001]

@@andrewlucia865 Thanks for giving us a clear explanation of train air brakes.

[@fabiendalmasso]

It's alwaus nice to see a video about my home country events. I knew about this one but you do tell the story with reel talent. As I said on another video, have you already spoken about the Bazar de la Charité fire ? It's quite a subject.

[@soly-dp-colo6388]

Oui, bonne idée !

[@jtgd]

I don’t get why the woman didn’t just leave at the next stop. I also don’t understand why they punished the driver with years of prison over a mistake that was caused by placement of levers, not merely negligence

[@grmpEqweer]

He got out after 6 months.

[@nicoleofnowhere8842]

It all depends on how far it was going to be for the mom to walk, how little her kids were, and how unforgiving the school/daycare was regarding late pick ups. Who knows what kind of stress she was under. It took some guts for her to come forward.

[@davidpnewton]

@Nicole of Nowhere she got the punishment she deserved. She was stupid and selfish but she did not cause those deaths. The driver on the other hand? Definitely guilty of manslaughter through gross negligence. Multiple actions on his part first caused and then exacerbated the situation. He was arrogant in failing to follow established maintenance procedures. He was then negligent in his failure to follow emergency procedures. SNCF setup made some contribution but the union was wrong: the driver deserved to be convicted, as indeed did the guard for his actions in helping bleed the brakes.

[@thecornedbeefcouncil9792]

@@davidpnewton spoken like someone with zero knowledge of the pressures Train Drivers face in these situations.

[@davidpnewton]

@The Corned Beef Council that is where some of SNCF's blame could be brought in. However it was him and him alone who made the brake bleeding decision. It was him and him alone who made the decision to break procedure and not get the brakes inspected.

[@benb9151]

These videos could be longer, but I do like that they're not made overly dramatic and mostly let the situation speak for itself

[@ImmortalKat4ever]

While the driver does deserve a lot of the blame, I feel like the woman who pulled the EMERGENCY STOP on a train just to avoid being late got off way too lightly. Although I empathize with the panic of realizing you're not going where you're supposed to be, it's just a bafflingly self-centered reaction to me compared to getting off at the next exit and re-planning your route. It was the 80s, not the 1800s. Find a payphone and let the school know you're on your way but running late. As a teacher myself, I can confidently say that, while we might be annoyed with you, we're not gonna throw your kids in the dumpster or something if you're late picking them up.

[@TheNelly77]

KatFangz is exactly right. Folks see the word "mother" and immediately turn off their judgment standards. I guarantee that a kid would get torn to shreds for pulling the emergency brake, though.

[@lovelywillow90]

While I agree, that she had other options then using the emergency break I don't think she deserves anymore then what she got. It wasn't the emergency break that caused the accident. It was the driver not doing what he should have when the breaks weren't working and he even had a backup he didn't use. The emergency breaks are there for passengers to use just in a serious emergency and she got fined for using it otherwise which was correct.

[@alice45-fgd-456drt]

@@TheNelly77 It's got nothing to do with her being a parent, but everything to do with the fact that she didn't actually cause the accident. She exposed an incredibly faulty combination of people breaking procedure left right and center and the tech not working as expected. The emergency brake IS MEANT to be used and is NOT meant to cause a train collision. Hence she clearly didn't deserve to be punished for everything that happened after she pulled it.

[@aimeem]

@Hephaistos There's a lot of misogyny with this reaction. They're blaming her for the whole thing, not the driver who FORGOT ABOUT THE EMERGENCY BRAKE.

[@Transilvanian90]

@Hephaistos She should absolutely have faced criminal charges for what she did; it's easy to forsee that if you fraudulently pull a train emergency brake, it might cause problems (a fire, a collision with another train that hits the now randomly stopped train, etc). It's akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater, you're responsible for the subsequent chain of events. Not fully, the driver fucked up too, as did the railway organization, but she's ABSOLUTELY guilty here.

[@mariaday8040]

Another train disaster you might want to cover is the Granville Train Disaster, Sydney in 1977.

[@marvindebot3264]

All the holes the Swiss Cheese lined up for this to happen didn't they? It won't do him any good but I hope Andre was awarded a posthumous bravery medal for his sacrifice and his family is well taken care of.

[@ferretyluv]

Swiss cheese model! You take emergency preparedness too?

[@marvindebot3264]

@@ferretyluv 25 years in Fire and Rescue

[@SkipperMacky]

that memorial is awful

[@skelly4998]

I disagree

[@cydkriletich6538]

Over and over again we hear of accidents that happen because of a series of failed procedures. It is both frustrating and frightening. May those who lost their lives rest in peace. And the man who stayed at his post while encouraging passengers to run should be honored as a hero.

[@Polymathically]

I went to Paris about 20 years ago, and even stopped at Gare de Lyon. I only learned about the disaster from this video. Absolutely tragic.

[@MyNameHere101]

It's so sad that we can only fix problems that we know about, and oftentimes we only know about them after it's too late.

[@jediknightjairinaiki560]

Comedian Dennis Miller said it best. "I don't think I ever want to be on any form of mass transit where the general public has access to the fuckin' brakes. I'd hate to find out we went off the tracks at 200 miles an hour, because Gus thought he saw a woodchuck".

[@b43xoit]

The correct spelling here is "brakes", one hopes (although in the case in question, things really did break).

[@jake12466]

@jediknightjairinaiki560 "BRAKES," not "BREAKS"

[@jediknightjairinaiki560]

@@b43xoit Didn't notice the autocorrect. I'll fix it.

[@jediknightjairinaiki560]

@@jake12466 Didn't notice the autocorrect. I'll fix it.

[@mindyschocolate]

That woman was incredibly selfish.

[@chrisc6857]

You see... when you said the woman's motives left the other passengers baffled, the first thing to come into my mind was "Karen who said to herself, 'Oh yes the train WILL stop here for ME!'" And sure enough...

[@Transilvanian90]

She should've been criminally charged and done some prison time for that.

[@sharonsmith583]

Congratulations on 1 million subscribers! Well done!

[@Cypher791]

Andre Tanguy could have gotten up and saved himself. But chose to sit there, staring down certain death just to give some strangers a chance to escape.

[@lifewuzonceezr]

He forgot about a backup brake!!!!?? 😡

[@Jatt2613]

This episode really lives up to your channel's name. So fascinating how a series of accidents and mistakes can lead to such a horrific outcome. If just one or two of those things hadn't happened the way they did, maybe this would have never happened or at least been a lot less severe.

[@We_Are_All_Vultures]

That person who put on the emergency breaks must feel awful.

[@kingofaesthetics9407]

Here's hoping they do. They got off lightly for their stupidity.

[@piearm1271]

True, but her actions should have had no impact. Had the driver followed the safety protocols including checking the brakes were operative after his actions the accident would not have happened as the isolated braking system would have been noted and corrected.

[@MoneyMuscle_]

I hope so - her selfishness caused all this

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

@@piearm1271 it was a series of small things in succession that cause this

[@ProSynyster]

@@piearm1271 regardless her actions are what set everything in motion. All because she didn’t want to be inconvenienced 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@djaysenpai]

the pneumatic valve was also confusing with closed position being parallel to the pipe, and also a high degree slope just before the gare de lyon made the train goes from 30km/h to 70km/h. this is some final destination stuff.

[@marvindebot3264]

Really? That's nuts, parallel is open on every single valve I've ever seen/used.

[@djaysenpai]

@@marvindebot3264 yes, it was a bad design, they probably corrected it after the accident.

[@marvindebot3264]

@@djaysenpai One would hope so!

[@grmpEqweer]

The holes in the Swiss cheese lined up.

[@daminox]

Headline: "Engineer who bleeds brakes of his train is surprised to learn he has no brakes"

[@FallingPicturesProductions]

The woman selfishly pulling the emergency brakes should have been charged the exact same as the driver for being the originator of the mess. It's called emergency brakes for a reason, not a 'oh fuck this inconveniences my family and I' reset.

[@Truckngirl]

Very well presented. I was just thinking about what you said about the emergency worker response time. In a well populated area, ten minutes is a very long time...

[@cherenkov_blue]

It is absolutely ridiculous that Saulin got sentenced to prison, while the woman who intentionally pulled the emergency brake got off with a light fine. Saulin was panicked and under pressure, while that woman knew exactly what she was doing when she pulled that brake. Edit for clarification: I'm not saying that the woman knew what would happen after she pulled the brake, merely that the act of pulling it was purposeful. If someone shouts "fire!" in a crowded venue, they're probably not expecting a stampede that results in multiple deaths, but they should still be punished more severely than a fine for it.

[@cheerdiver]

Exactly, according to the 'authorities' women are virtuous and can not be held to account. Call it White Knight Wanabe syndrome, common among gov agents.

[@fluffymilkpudding]

i'm pretty sure she didn't know "exactly what she was doing" considering activating an emergency break doesn't usually kill 56 people

[@dinolil1474]

Saulin was released after a few months and it is acknowledged that he should've called a technician; Furthermore, the woman was punished for *exactly* what she did - pulling the emergency brake, which is a fine. She wouldn't have been able to know that it would lead to a terrible crash.

[@Transilvanian90]

@@dinolil1474 She fraudulently pulled the emergency brake to suit her own convenience; that's way beyond fine material, and creates a chain of events leading to, potentially disaster. It's fully comparable with yelling fire in a crowded theater.

[@BritishBeachcomber]

The driver was at fault, but only due to bad design. There should be indicators in the cab to show the status of every part of the braking system.

[@phaasch]

This illustrates perfectly how 9/10ths of disasters are a tragic combination of disparate events, which converge into one tragedy.

[@jonathanaikman2285]

Well I hope that the woman who stopped the train lives with remorse every single day. What sort of selfishness leads someone to deliberately stop a train because they're late for something? Imagine if we all did that. She just leaves the train and inconveniences dozens of other passengers. I would have given her 6 months in prison whether she indirectly caused the crash or not.

[@Transilvanian90]

Agreed. It's much more than a fine's worth of shit behavior.

[@mehashi]

Woman acts without regard to anyone else for her selfish ends. Disaster ensues. This is why entitlement and narcissism are not just cute foibles, but serious character flaws that need to be challenged by society.

[@piperjaycie]

Definitely!

[@berzerkbankie1342]

It's honestly incredibly that only 56 people lost their lives. Extremely tragic for everyone involved.

[@Trainfan1055Janathan]

Passengers should never have access to emergency brakes. They're too stupid to know what an actual emergency is.

[@alice45-fgd-456drt]

Emergency brakes available to passengers is standard in most developed countries.

[@Trainfan1055Janathan]

@@alice45-fgd-456drt I know, but seeing how people think "I planned my trip poorly and now I'm going to be late" is an emergency, I don't think they should have access to it.

[@markgr1nyer]

I love these videos because you find out why things are invented or introduced. I knew having been a guard for 3 years on the UK railway that the drivers can override emergency brake applications caused by passengers, but today I found out why and standout one for me was the emergency exit bar due to the incident in the Sunderland theatre

[@Unownshipper]

This incident is a perfect breakdown of natural human behavior: every one of us have acted like the main participants at some point or another: the mother who did something rather careless when she faced the possibility of being late (if you've ever driven a car, you probably have), Saulin who in a moment of extreme stress forgot basic training, and Tanguy who went above and beyond for others. Lest you think I'm vilifying Saulin for his actions, he did show extreme concern for the passengers on his train. By hurriedly alerting them of the danger and escorting them to the rear carriages, he protected them from serious impact. I really consider this to be a disaster caused equally by human error and a combination of company culture, corporate mismanagement, and design flaws. With a little imagination and a more macro look at the way the line was set up, a disaster like this could probably have been anticipated.

[@LadyKapow92]

I think it's unfair that the driver got a harsher punishment than the woman that pulled the emergency brake. This disaster only happened because of her pulling the emergency brake. I think she also should have received an involuntary manslaughter charge. The driver of the train had no idea why the brake was pulled and did the best he could with the minimal knowledge he had at the time. That woman should have received a much harsher punishment than just a fine.

[@Transilvanian90]

Agreed. If you do a fraudulent action (like this, or yelling fire in a crowded theater when there's no fire) you're partially responsible for anything bad that happens next, even if there's other factors at work (like the theater having shitty exit doors).

[@grmpEqweer]

She was just a passenger. He had training and he failed to keep to it. When you're a professional, you have a higher standard of responsibility. ...OTOH, the equipment ought to have had some indication, fail-safe, or something as well.

[@paulrasmussen8953]

@@grmpEqweer whilemwrong what he dod was reasona le enough..if he hadn't knocmed the other lever what he dod would be fine. She bares mlre of the blame

[@mgratk]

That the guy forgot about an electrical backup braking system seems to indicate a severe lack of ongoing training. Hopefully that was addressed as well. EDIT: typo correction: "breaking" corrected to "braking," thanks to the gallantry of @jake12466

[@unlapras9365]

If I recall correctly he argued that drivers were not really trained to use the electrical break. Also, he couldn't be certain that it would be enough to stop the train while he still needed time to tell passengers to go to the rear car before impact.

[@b43xoit]

@@unlapras9365 "brake"

[@jake12466]

@mgratk "BRAKING," not "BREAKING"

[@jake12466]

​@@unlapras9365"BRAKE," not "BREAK"

[@mgratk]

@@jake12466 Thanks for the insignificant typo correction, I suppose. I will correct it and give you credit.

[@sketchyskies8531]

Imagine doing something as simple as pulling the emergency brake and leaving not knowing you just caused multiple deaths and injuries in doing so

[@rafetizer]

It's basically, "If you hadn't done A, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to screw up B, C, D, and E." You could follow the chain back further, to say, "If the railway hadn't closed down that particular stop" and further to "If the railway didn't exist in the first place."

[@redbreadredemption2401]

@@rafetizer Any fool with half a brain knows better than to pull an emergency break for no reason. Her not using any common sense is where that chain ends.

[@FinnishLapphund]

There's nothing simple about pulling the Emergency brake in a non emergency situation.

[@delanorrosey4730]

The 20yr old single mother responsible got off criminal charges injuring and killing those people.

[@sketchyskies8531]

@@FinnishLapphund Good point…

[@seandelap8587]

So frustrating when you know this tragedy could have been entirely avoided once the driver knew something was wrong with the brakes he should have just allowed all the passengers to disembark and call for help

[@reachandler3655]

Easy to say when you haven't got bosses pushing you to strict timetables.

[@seandelap8587]

It would have taken less than 5 years to let the passengers of the train I'm sure considering the circumstances they would have understood the situation and the driver could easily have called for help to help resolve it at least no one would have ended up getting killed if the driver did they instead of assuming to know what he was doing and could handle it himself when he clearly couldn't

[@MrMarinus18]

Actually that was also the procedure. In the situation according to the handbook he should have called over the maintenance crew who would have spotted the error easily. Also the train actually did have a secondary regenerative break. Activating that and using the single pneumatic break still left would have been enough breaking power to stop the train. The regenerative break also is a toggle switch which means you active it and it will keep going so if he was worried about his passengers he could have still activated it before leaving the cabin. It wouldn't have stopped the train completely but it would have slowed it down significantly. Not to mention when he called for help he forgot to give his identity which meant the controllers couldn't divert the train to an empty platform because they had no idea which train the distress call came from.

[@jake12466]

​@@MrMarinus18 "BRAKE," NOT "BREAK"

[@tavi9598]

Accidents like this are why you should perform a thorough inspection of your equipment before setting off, including testing the brakes. Especially if you've been messing with things. In trucking it actually used to be commonplace in the pulling of tandem trailers to isolate the brakes of the rearmost trailer if that trailer was empty. This would prevent those wheels from locking up in an emergency, but also concealed any potential leaks. Anti-lock brakes have made this practice redundant.

[@steb430]

This video does play the driver as totally incompetent, maybe also the system was also incompetent for the lack of regular Emergency training for the drivers...

[@korbell1089]

The driver had my sympathy because sometimes sh*t just happens, that is until I find out that there was an emergency brake he could have used! edit: to change guard to driver.

[@dx1450]

Reminds me of a comedy bit Dennis Miller did about someone pulling the emergency brake on a train. "I don't want to take any form of public transportation where the general public has access to the brakes... I'd hate to find out that we went off the rails at 100 MPH because Gus thought he saw a woodchuck..."

[@newlife8610]

‘He forgot there was another emergency way to stop the train!’ That is the train conductors fault. He is responsible for the deaths & injuries to the passengers. The fact that he only served 6 months is tragic!!!!😢

[@chengliu872]

I feel like that lady was not adequately punished. The fact that she was only fined $180 is an absolute joke, I got almost quadruple that much just because I didn't completely stop at a red light before making a right turn one time and there was no one there (not surprising considering that it was the dead of night) while this lady gets that much for causing something where people literally died. She was the one that started it all because of her own selfishness. I shouldn't be surprised I guess, most people who are parents at that age clearly lack some judgement.

[@RestrictedProceed]

Now imagine cops would pull you over to issue you ticket for that, and someone speeding by and not paying attention would kill them. Should you be the one charged with manslaughter?

[@piperjaycie]

Agree. She needed charging with something.

[@Transilvanian90]

@@RestrictedProceed No because the cop put himself there, and the speeding driver committed the crime.

[@MaiAolei]

I feel quite upset at the passenger that pulled the emergency brake. Even if no disaster had occurred, I feel a vsceral resentment towards people who abuse systems or social norms intended for the public good, similar to feigning distress in order to rob helpers or using someone else's disabled badge to park in a disabled spot. They do something fundamentally wrong.

[@HexagonalMan6]

It's absurd that the driver was sentenced to prison. While he didn't follow SOP, he ultimately just played a single part in a cascading failure of engineering design in that system.

[@paulrasmussen8953]

And nkte he would have been fine if he hadn't hot the other lever

[@tristantristancraped]

Thanks for always consistently uploading and always delivering. Been a fan for a couple years now!

[@nickford17]

Weird system. Just anybody can decide where to stop the train? And then they intentionally skip your stop because someone else chose to get off early? Hard to imagine that train was ever on time!

[@marvindebot3264]

All passenger trains have an emergency handle in the carriages.

[@nickford17]

@@marvindebot3264 And now they're useless because it requires the engineer to approve an emergency brake activation by a passenger. There's no way to win!

[@marvindebot3264]

@@nickford17 Well that's pretty stupid. They still work here (Aust) on the mainline and where I drive (a steam tourist road) it's still a cord that directly dumps the line pressure.

[@piperjaycie]

No, it’s an EMERGENCY brake. You use it if a train car is on fire and an extinguisher can’t put it out. Or if a person starts attacking someone with a knife. Only in situations where people need to evacuate for their immediate safety. It’s not for using to stop anywhere.

[@twitertaker]

While the womens behavior was reckless and selfish, such behavior should never result in such accidents, as safety measures need to deal with evil, stupid and ignorant people.

[@ashleyholland9607]

If this is the third deadliest train disaster in peace time France what is the second and first one

[@HomebrewHorsepower]

This obviously was a systemic failure. There should have been better processes, training, redundancies, and communication in place. Humans WILL make mistakes. I properly planned system will provide every opportunity to prevent those mistakes from becoming disasters.

[@solracer66]

This is very interesting! I worked in Fontainebleau for 6 months in spring 1989 and fall 1990 and rode the train from Fontainebleau to Paris via Melun often, both with the type of equipment that crashed on the suburban (banlieue) line and the faster and more direct RER style trains. I'm thankful that SNCF quickly stepped up to eliminate the causes of the crash and that I didn't know of it at the time!

[@trevorregay9283]

wow.....as usual...leave it to people being selfish to start a change of events that turns deadly.......and given the ability to interrupt a system they had no business interrupting......incredibly sad....

[@sandybruce9092]

I click on the thumbs up before I even listen to these videos as I know I will enjoy them and learn more history. The narrators voice is perfect and so pleasant to listen to - thank you so much for each and every one!!

[@greatyng442]

Tragic event, but what the hell is that memorial supposed to be? I'm glad there is one, but just by looking at that picture I couldn't tell you what it's for, or what it symbolizes.

[@ak3p0]

It's cold and disgusting in North Texas, US of A 🥶. Just your lovely drawl (wait, that's mine); simply hearing your accent from (I'm sorry? I didn't catch that..) and that familiar intro 🎶 have made my day! Thank you for what you do!

[@johnattwood8467]

The delayed train could have possibly started moving and once reaching slightly less speed could have let the runaway train bump into its back then slow both of them down!? Terrible that the driver didn't even know their was an emergency brake?

[@connieembury1]

Another night of insomnia and I was rewarded with a new video from my favourite person! Thank you for making my morning brighter.

[@Rocket_scientist_88]

Fascinating video… my only comment is that the collision itself was not adequately described like these events usually are in these wonderful videos. I knew it was coming, but the way it was presented was anti-climactic, and left me a little puzzled when he started talking about the video in the past tense. Nonetheless, this was another outstanding story from recent history, that I do remember - although barely - when it happened.

[@andrewkelley9405]

What posses people to just hit the emergency breaks like that? I will never understand.

[@emmyjane6637]

Did you watch the video? It literally says

[@Levisathome]

Split second decision and being utterly suprised

[@jake12466]

@andrewkelley9405 "BRAKES," not "BREAKS"

[@Menstral]

Yes, a selfish single mother (redundant) really caused this problem. The entire train should make an unscheduled stop because of your inattention and your desire not to be late. Unbelievable.

[@Fireglo]

Honestly their entitlement knowns no bounds. They want a free house, free money and now apparently they also feel entitled to a train making an unscheduled stop for them. Absolutely should have thrown the book at her. She pulled an emergency stop just because she wanted convenience and she ended up causing a pileup. That's involuntary manslaughter at least. The emergency stop is not a toy.

[@jellomiki]

Train accident really have a way of being extra-bad...

[@FinnishLapphund]

So, because she hadn't kept herself informed regarding changes in train station stops, she thought it justified using the Emergency brake!? What a blatant misuse of the Emergency brake system. That's literally the typical public transport situation where you accept that you've messed up, get off at the next stop, and make your way back to wherever it was that you're going.

[@esteban1487]

Pure narcissisism on the woman's part.

[@Eric-Wolfman]

Seen every video (over time) and love them! The music you use is one of my favorite parts!

[@sig9girl]

That first passenger should have been charged. She set the whole thing in motion, Not the train guy. 😡

[@chengliu872]

She was, a whole $180. This is why I lol when women in the western world complain of sexism.

[@pendoreille9185]

The lack of punishment of the girl who selfishly pulled the brake and the heavy punishment of a respected driver who simply goofed is backwards. I used to live in Washington State, USA and a state trooper told me he issued more speeding tickets to mothers who were late for work than any other group of drivers.

[@alice45-fgd-456drt]

The emergency brake is meant to be used, and while she did use it when there wasn't an emergency (and was punished for that), using the brake isn't meant to cause a train collision. That's why she wasn't punished for the accident, because it was in no way her fault.

[@pendoreille9185]

@@alice45-fgd-456drt actually it was her fault. The device is labeled and she could have spoken to the guard. Given the number of deaths, how severely was she punished and why was the driver who panicked punished so much more severely?

[@RestrictedProceed]

@@pendoreille9185 She got the appropriate fine for what she did, misusing the emergency brake. The rest was just pure incompetence of the French railways and its employees.

[@Transilvanian90]

@@RestrictedProceed She started the chain of events by using the emergency brake fraudulently... like yelling fire in a crowded theater, you might not WANT to cause a stampede but it's predictable that shit will happen.

[@RestrictedProceed]

@@Transilvanian90 Started the chain of events? Then someone could argue that SNCF started it by not properly training its drivers. Or the ones that designed the brake system on the train in an imperfect way. And why not blame the guys who build the railway in the first place, they might have not wanted to cause train accidents, but it's predictable that crashes would happen when running heavy metal boxes on rigid tracks?

[@MusicoftheDamned]

Huh. This is another (train) disaster I both hadn't heard of and am surprised that even more people didn't die, especially considering it's another instance of slamming into another train.

[@MrMarinus18]

What made this crash so devasting was also that the other train was in a one way station. It had no where to go so absorbed the full force of the impact.

[@salnaturile8653]

Seeing as the runaway train's driver had moved most of his passengers rearward, presumably the majority of the fatalities were on the stationary train waiting at the platform a result of crush type injuries, although conversely probably a lot of the injured came from the moving train through sudden deceleration.

[@SenseiBonaf]

@@salnaturile8653 IIRC there were no fatalities in the moving train.

[@RunyaEithelNar]

Ł

[@ronbennett7885]

If a man had pulled the emergency brake, would likely receive prison time. But since it was a young mother, small fine and have a nice day.

[@eeveestar6826]

Is this the one where the mom pulled the emergency brake because she didn't know the route was changed and was taking her to the wrong place so she panicked because her young kids were waiting for them to pick up from school? It was kinda selfish towards the other passengers, but I feel like people demonise her too much because how was she supposed to know that it would be a domino for a train crash? And dear god, the guilt she must have felt. Plus, to this day my mum keeps telling me the story of how she arrived late due to traffic and couldn't find me because I wandered off to look for her because she was late and she didn't find me for half and hour. So I understand WHY the mom panicked. Edit: Oh god, she was 21?! And she had school age children???

[@reachandler3655]

I agree!

[@TheNelly77]

Doesn't matter if you have a good reason. You have no business pulling the emergency brake. When you do dumb things, you take the risk of something unexpected happening. Would it be okay if it was a father doing this?

[@jojoslameerrand9305]

@@TheNelly77 no one is saying its OK, the issue is that people are making her solely responsible for the incident. She pulled the emergency brake for something that wasn't an emergency and got fined. Which is protocol for pulling the emergency brake. She wasn't the driver who failed to inspect the train thoroughly and she was also not the company that failed to maintain the train itself.

[@tech99070]

The fact that they'd been with the company for so long was probably the problem. I think a lot of us can relate to working with people who don't know about anything that has come out in the last 10 years and don't care either. The fact that train operators wouldn't avail themselves to resources right there on their own train, after doing some harebrained modifications themselves, smacks of people who mistook their experience for competence.

[@vaclavholek4497]

I'm not a train engineer, but I am a mechanical engineer. The 1872 Westinghouse automatic airbrake is a "fail-safe" system. Air pressure is needed to release the brakes, instead of being needed to apply them. This way, if there is a loss of air pressure in the system, the brakes apply automatically, and can't be released until air pressure is reapplied. Why would SNCF use a system that wasn't "fail-safe," when this technology has existed for 150 years?

[@marvindebot3264]

No, you are suffering from a common misconception of how train brakes work.. The pressure reduction opens a valve allowing stored air to apply the brakes, the spring hold the brakes off the wheel not on as in a truck. A train with no air at all is still a runaway. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_air_brake#:~:text=The%20Westinghouse%20system%20uses%20air,air%20stored%20in%20its%20reservoirs.

[@RestrictedProceed]

This in fact was a classic Westinghouse-style air brake, which is fail-safe in theory, but only under certain conditions. The issue is that it uses compressed air as the source of braking force. Decrease in brake pipe pressure is only used as a signal, telling each car (or more precisely, each triple valve) to admit air from brake reservoirs into brake cylinders. There can be no brake application if the system has been bled of air beforehand, which is exactly what happened here.

[@ScottDLR]

I know I'm missing something here but why do passengers have the ability to stop a train?

[@ian3580]

My thoughts too....I can see being able to sound an alarm but to be able to apply emergency braking? Wow.

[@RestrictedProceed]

From a safety point of view, it is much better to have multiple points from which multiple people are able to stop the train, rather than one person in one hardly accessible place (the driver's cab), which would make the system more vulnerable to a single point failure. Not to mention that the train driver has no way of knowing what's happening in the passenger areas of the train. Great example of this is the 1998 Eschede train disaster, where the train driver had no idea that one wheel fell apart and penetrated a coach. If the emergency brake was activated by a passenger, 101 people could have been saved.

[@ScottDLR]

​@@RestrictedProceed Ok, I can see employee's having the ability to stop a train but to have the stop readily available to passengers is problematic IMO.

[@ian3580]

@@RestrictedProceed But the driver has more information on how the train operated, where other trains are, where the train is in respect to assistance/emergency services, etc. I can see having a call box to alert the engineer, but allowing anyone with no training at all to emergency brake the train seems very dangerous. Untrained people would not know what emergency makes stopping the train in the current location the right choice. A single example is hardly enough, and there are others ways that could have been handled (ie a way to call the driver/engineer)

[@RestrictedProceed]

@@ian3580 You make a good point, that's why most emergency brake systems do have an override option, allowing the driver to keep the train rolling to a location where it's safe to stop. There are at least two issues with the alarm-only option. The first one is that it does not take the driver incapacitation into account (probably could be solved by a timed-out automatic application though). The other one is that it depends on the ability to initiate the emergency application from the head end, which is not always guaranteed. There are real-life examples of an enroute loss of brake pipe continuity, leaving the train driver (in a separate locomotive) unable to stop the train.

[@mikaelafox6106]

The more I read about this, the more I can’t believe that woman didn’t get into some sort of trouble for pulling that emergency brake. Yes, I suppose she’s under a lot of lifelong guilt for causing almost 60 people to die, but she wasn’t ever officially penalized. It would make me sick to my stomach. Those poor people.

[@Grant-dx3qt]

All she did was activate the emergency stop improperly. Had the brakes been reset correctly afterwards, none of it would have happened.

[@keirapoppins2514]

@@Grant-dx3qt And she still misused the emergency brake out of selfishness. She should at least have been banned from the network.

[@aidanclarke6106]

@@keirapoppins2514 - You can't ban people from public services

[@pedrogudino1133]

A person like that doesn't experience guilt.

[@psychickumquat]

@@pedrogudino1133 What a stupid assumption, you don't know a thing about that woman.

[@timcameron9023]

trains appear prone to the dumbest, most ridiculous accidents. This is a doozy - no wonder they want to drone-up the trains, I think the odds would be better without a moron at the controls.