Ciurea rail disaster
| Ciurea rail disaster | |
|---|---|
Purported wreckage of the train | |
| Details | |
| Date | 13 January 1917 [O.S. 31 December 1916] 1 a.m. |
| Location | Ciurea Station 10 km (6.2 mi) S from Iași |
| Coordinates | 46°53′17″N 27°11′12″E / 46.88806°N 27.18667°E |
| Country | Kingdom of Romania |
| Line | Bârlad–Iași |
| Operator | CFR |
| Incident type | Derailment |
| Cause | Brake failure |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Deaths | 800–1,000 |
The Ciurea rail disaster, known in Romania as the Ciurea catastrophe (Romanian: Catastrofa de la Ciurea), occurred on 13 January 1917, during World War I, when a passenger train derailed and collided with a stationary train on another track. It occurred at Ciurea Station, in Iași County, a train station with a passing loop, located on the railway line from Iași to Bârlad. There was no formal investigation and the exact cause of the derailment is unknown. The death toll is also uncertain, with most sources indicating between 800 and 1,000 deaths. With these estimates, the Ciurea rail disaster is the second worst train wreck in world history by death toll, after the 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami train wreck.