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

4 June - a date remembered for...?

I woke up this morning, aware that it was 4 June, the anniversary of Poland's first (semi) free elections in 1989 that would result in the fall of communism. Momentous as that event was, it did not make the top news story in the BBC that day 27 years ago. The top news story was the massacre by the Chinese communist authorities of the protesters at Tiananmen Square, in which several hundred people died. The second story that day covered the Ufa rail disaster in Russia, in which at least 575 people - many of them children - died.

The Ufa disaster was chilling because of the huge number of fatalities, children travelling to or from holidays on the Black Sea, and the crass negligence that caused it. A pipeline carrying gas from Siberia, running close to the railway line, split open earlier the previous day (poor welding? rust?). The split was 1.7m long. As long as many people are tall. The pipeline operators, seeing a significant drop in pressure, rather than stopping the gas and investigating the cause, merely increased the flow. More and more gas was pumped out, which made its way into the cutting through which the Trans-Siberian railway ran. It formed a huge invisible lake into which plunged two passing trains at 01:15 on 4 June. As the trains approached one another on opposite tracks, both drivers applied the brakes; sparks from the brake blocks ignited the gas causing an explosion that had the force of several hundred tonnes of TNT. The flames were visible from 100km away, windows were blown out of houses in a 10km radius. All because of a lack of proper procedures and risk management.

So - rightly - the Tiananmen Square massacre and Ufa rail disaster took precedence over the historic Polish election.

Now, reading this morning about the Ufa disaster, I noticed that another massive rail disaster* took place in Russia exactly a year earlier, on 4 June 1988, at Arzamas. A train carrying 108 tonnes of hexogene, a military explosive more powerful than TNT, exploded near Arzamas-1 station, killing 91 people and destroying 150 buildings. The resultant crater was reportedly 26 metres deep. Given the secret military nature of the industry in the town, Soviet authorities initially suspected sabotage by foreign secret agents. [*The Russian Wikipedia page is so much more informative than the English one. So let your browser translate it for you.]

Today I went for a motorbike ride out to Augustówka and Pilawa. On my way back, just before Osieck, I noticed this monument to one of Poland's worst post-war rail accidents. A passenger train ran headlong into a freight train on this stretch of the Skierniewice to Łukow line. With one track closed for repair, and both trains found themselves on the same track. The driver of the passenger train, heading for Łuków, left Osieck station without the necessary authority. Twenty five people - including the driver - died as a result.

I looked at the date - and froze. It was also 4 June. The year - 1981. So exactly 35 years ago today. Looking at the names and ages of the dead - aged between 16 and 77, including a mother and her daughter, two twin brothers, both 17, and the intriguingly named Narcyz Kieliszek - I ponder on the fact that all of them could have lived normal lives had one man not made one careless mistake.

Out on the quiet DW 805, the cross stands to the left of the road on the way from Osieck pod Grabinką and Osieck itself. Just behind the memorial is the railway line where the accident took place. You can make out the line in the photo (above) through the trees to the right of the plaque.

Time to reflect about coincidence and complacency, being at the wrong place at the wrong time - that we are perpetually teetering on the edge of chaos, and only a stream of tiny miracles keep us alive. Contemplating that fact helps.


This time last year:
Corpus Christi, rural Mazovia

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

This time three years ago:
Poland's infrastructure progress

This time five years ago:
Wetlands in late-spring

This time six 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 seven years ago:
Another time, another place

The world didn't end

In Ukraine, people are reportedly stockpiling food, bottled water, batteries, candles and matches in case the advertised end of the world manifests itself today. The so-called end of the Mayan Long Calendar (which somehow didn't coincide with the end of Buddhist, Muslim, Hindi, Christian or Jewish calendars) will come and go, and another eschatological date will slip into forgottenness.(Remember 2000?) Worth looking back at some other dates on which the world was to have ended, as well as some future ones...

Truly world-ending phenomena would signal their impending arrival; a solar flare that could knock out all electrical function around the globe, a supervolcano such as the Yellowstone Caldera or an asteroid heading our way would have given notice of themselves by now.

In any case, I'm of the opinion that bad things happen when they're not expected. The Indian Ocean Tsunami of  2004, which killed 230,000 people, was one of those events. It had not been foreseen by any religion or cult or fortune teller. Nor was 1 September 1939 mentioned in the Scriptures. And similarly on the personal scale, bad things strike one out of the blue.

Today is the year's Darkest Day, with the sun rising in Warsaw at 07:43 and setting at 15:25, giving us seven hours and 52 minutes of daylight, 16 hours and eight minutes of darkness. By Christmas Day, it will once again be evident that the day is indeed getting longer once again; the darkness will be retreating (well, in the Northern Hemisphere at least!) as it always has done, something for which we should all show gratitude.

[Revisiting this post six years on, December 2018, I can see it in a different light... 2012 was probably the best year of my life. Everything was going so well. Ukraine and Russia were at peace. Trump was a marginal joke figure. The word 'Brexit' was only being used by political scientists. Though I watched none of the Euro2012 football championships, the atmosphere around the games (with the exception of those involving Russia) was hospitable. Since the end of 2012, things have gone sour. Not in any apocalyptic sense, but Putin's militaristic adventures, Brexit and Trump are not good things. So maybe there was something in the 2012 phenomenon after all...]

This time last year:
First snow - but proper snow?

The time two years ago:
Dense, wet, rush hour snow

This time three years ago:
Evening photography, Powiśle

This time four years ago:
The shortest day of the year

This time five years ago:
Bye bye borders - Poland joins Schengen