The Balvano railway tragedy, 3 March 1944. The worst train disaster ever in Italy.
On the night of the second to third of March 1944, over 500 people were killed on a train near the village of Balvano which is between Eboli and Potenza in southern Italy. Those that died were helping themselves to a free ride on the train, many in order to go to the countryside to pick up food stuffs. Carbon monoxide poisoning was the silent killer. It came from the steam engine as it crawled up a tunnel using low grade coal or coal substitutes.
The train left Naples for Potenza in the evening with 47 freight wagons pulled by an electric engine. However the track from Battipaglia was not electrified so two steam engines took over. Every time it stopped, more people got on. Theoretically passengers were not allowed on such trains but as a rule this was not enforced. This night was an exception, some people were asked to leave at Eboli. At midnight there was a technical stop at the Balvano-Ricigliano station. Fifty minutes later the train started towards the station at 15 kilometres per hour. After 1.8 kilometres it reached the Armi tunnel. This tunnel is 1,968 metres long and it is on a 1.3 percent incline. It is narrow and poorly ventilated. The dampness of the track, together with the incline and the weight of the train brought it to a halt somewhere in the middle of the tunnel. Another train had just passed through and even as it entered the tunnel, the tunnel was full of smoke. As the engine struggled to move it produced even more carbon monoxide–laden smoke. It could be that many of the stowaways did not realise what was happening. It was wet outside, they were possibly glad to be out of the rain and it was dark – between one and two in the morning. Being tired is natual. Not realising that they were being poisoned, they would have just drifted off to sleep. They did not wake up. Those that survived were mainly in the rear wagons which were closer to the fresh air at the bottom end of the tunnel.
The driver attempted to reverse but he fainted, overcome by the carbon monoxide. He was unable to give signals to the driver in the second engine as his engine was Italian and thus left hand drive whereas the other engine was an old Austrian model and right hand drive.
Michele Palo was the the brakeman at the end of the train. He was probably used to stops for apparently no reason, or long red lights so at first did not do anything. However when the wait became very long he went to investigate. He was shocked to flatbeds full of dead bodies. He ran back to the station at Balvano. The stationmaster came back with him and confirmed his story. A rescue train arrived at 05:25 but by then there were so many bodies on the track that it could not move forward. At 08:40 a second rescue team arrived which hauled the train back to the station. Among the crew, only the one brakeman, and the second locomotive's fireman, survived.
Due to the war and the closeness of the front, this matter was not publicised. Many of the victims were very poor. 402 people, 324 men and 78 women, were buried in four mass graves in Balvano. Only the train staff received a traditional burial with a service.
This was caused by a perfect storm of factors. The war which meant there was not better coal available and had caused food shortages in many areas. The weather, the rain and dense fog, which had caused the wheels to slip. Other problems were long standing, the poor ventilation going back to when the tunnel was constructed and the fact that the train was a double header instead of a push pull configuration. Furthermore there was no reaction from the staff at stations down the line as they were so used to delays that they did not give it a second thought.
The Italian State railways did not accept responsibility because it was taking its instructions from the Allied Command and could not alter the compostion of the train, even if it had wanted to. However it is worth pointing out that there were only two passenger trains per week running on this line thus encouraging stowaways.
So how many people died? The highest number I know of is the 626 quoted in the book Balvano 1944 - Indagine su un disastro rimosso. The initial total given by the Italian government was 517, the publication Oggi on 15 March 1951 quoted 427, La Stampa, Corriere della Sera e Il Giornale d'Italia quoted 500 and La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno quoted 509, 408 men and 101 women whilst Il Gazzettino said 549, 472 men and 77 women.
Sources :
https://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubri...
http://www.trenidicarta.it/treno8017/...
http://www.trenidicarta.it/treno8017/...
Gianluca Barneschi, Balvano 1944: I segreti di un disastro ferroviario ignorato.
Gianluca Barneschi, Balvano 1944. Indagine su un disastro rimosso,
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