What was the reason why the passengers were reduced to ashes in the Kaprun Disaster?

The Kaprun disaster, known as one of the deadliest disasters in history, It started happening as soon as the train stopped moving. Even the conductor of the train could not stop this situation, and all the passengers along with him lost their lives.

Alright What are the reasons behind this disaster? were there?

Let’s take a step-by-step look at what happened on this train journey.

The train unexpectedly stopped in a tunnel on its route. The conductor soon said, reported fire to the control center and then tried to open the doors of the train to let the passengers out.

Unfortunately, the doors did not open and the conductor was disconnected from the control center. Because fire reduced a power cable along the railway to ashes and the entire region faced a power outage.

Passengers trying to save their lives from the fire tried to break the windows of the train with the ski poles they had with them because they were traveling to the ski resort.

12 of the passengers managed to get out of the train by breaking the windows, thanks to a firefighter among them, but most of the remaining passengers were killed. He lost consciousness due to toxic fumes.

The conductor managed to unlock the doors, even though it was a late move. 3-4 people who still had not lost consciousness were saved.

In addition, the tunnel in which the train is located acts like a furnace and absorbs oxygen. It sent toxic fumes and heat upwards.. For this reason, the passengers and the conductor who managed to get out of the door died by suffocating from excessive smoke.

The effect of the smoke rising due to the fire was so great that the train entering the same tunnel over the burning train was so great that The conductor and 1 passenger in another train also He died from poisoning.

So what caused this disaster?

In the official investigation, the causes of this accident were the malfunction of the fan heater on the train, overheating and igniting unexpectedly It was determined that . In addition, a design error in the train caused the flammable hydraulic fluid to slowly ignite, melting the fluid lines and further feeding the flames.

Meanwhile, the loss of hydraulic pressure activated the brakes and had disabled the hydraulically operated doors.

On the other hand, the fact that this train had a funicular system also increased the possibility of disaster.

Because fire extinguishers in the units of funicular trains are located in closed compartments that passengers cannot reach and There are no smoke detectors. For this reason, the passengers could not intervene in the fire with their own efforts and the fire could not be prevented from growing.

An expert on this subject says that train designers have not encountered any disasters in trains with funicular systems before. He was unprepared for these accidents. indicates.

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