Fortieth anniversary of the Osieck rail disaster

 The Fourth of June is remembered in Poland as the anniversary of the first (semi) free elections in communist Poland in 1989 that would rapidly lead to the country's political and economic transformation, and escalate into the fall of communism across the whole of Central and Eastern Europe.

It is also the date, in 1981, of one of Poland's worst railway accidents, one that claimed the lives of 25 people. It happened in Osieck, on the Skierniewice-Łuków line (about which I have written several times on this blog, click label for more), east of the Vistula. Single-line work was in operation due to engineering works, an east-bound passenger train passed a red signal and collided head-on with a west-bound iron-ore train.

Looking at the names, and the ages of the victims, one feels a sense of lives stupidly cut short, of bereavement, of human potential unfulfilled. In particular the two seventeen year-olds - presumably twins - and the mother and daughter who died; the grief of their families must have been beyond endurance.

 The Fourth of June is also the date of the Ufa and the Arzamas rail disasters in Soviet Russia; the former in 1989, resulted in the deaths of over 575 people - mainly children - died, when two passing trains sparked an explosion of gas that had leaked out of a transit pipe into a valley. The latter, in 1988, was the result of the explosion of over 100 tonnes of high explosive, killing 91 people and resulting in a crater 26m deep.

Railways are much safer than ever, thanks to lessons learned, and much safer than driving.

This time last year:
Moonrise, Nowa Wola

This time two years ago:

Awaiting the Summer Sublime

This time five years ago:
4 June - a date remembered for...?

This time six years ago:
Corpus Christi, rural Mazovia

This time seven years ago:
25th anniversary of Poland's transition

This time eight years ago:
Poland's infrastructure progress

This time ten years ago:
Wetlands in late-spring

This time 11 years ago:
Jeziorki's flood of floods: Puławska and Pozytywki

Jeziorki's flood of floods: Sarabandy and Karczunkowska

Jeziorki's flood of floods: Trombity and Kórnicka

This time 12 years ago:
Another time, another place