History.com This Day in History:
Train crashes into station in Yugoslavia
A train entering a Zagreb, Yugoslavia, station derails, killing 153 people, on this day in 1974. It was the worst rail accident in the country’s history to that date and remains one of the worst in Europe’s history.
The express train from Belgrade to Dortmund was filled mostly with workers returning to their jobs in West Germany after taking summer vacations when it pulled away with 400 passengers that evening. Two engineers were in charge of the electric locomotive leading the passenger cars. As the train approached the Zagreb station, it had to negotiate a curve and should have slowed to 30 miles per hour. However, the engineers not only failed to slow the train, but went through a red signal at about 60 mph. . . .
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