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The Versailles rail accident occurred on 8 May 1842 in the cutting between Meudon and Bellevue stations on the railway between Versailles and Paris. Following King Louis Philippe I's celebrations at the Palace of Versailles, a train returning to Paris derailed at Meudon, after the leading locomotive broke an axle, and the carriages behind piled into it and caught fire. The first French railway accident and the deadliest in the world at the time, it caused between 52 and 200 deaths including that of the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville. The accident led to the abandonment in France of the practice of locking passengers in their carriages. Metal fatigue was poorly understood at the time and the accident is linked to the beginnings of systematic research into the problem. ==Derailment and fire== By the late afternoon of Sunday 8 May 1842, the public celebrations being held in honour of king Louis Philippe I in the Gardens of Versailles had finished and many people wished to return to Paris. At 5:30 pm a train left the ''rive gauche'' Versailles railway station for Paris Montparnasse.〔 Available online at ''catskillarchive.com'' (The Versailles Accident ). Accessed 26 October 2012.〕 Over long and composed of 16 to 18 carriages hauled by two steam locomotives, the train was crowded, carrying 770 passengers. Travelling at between Bellevue and Meudon,〔 one of the axles of the leading locomotive snapped and the vehicle derailed, scattering the contents of its fire-box. When the other locomotive and carriages continued over the derailed locomotive and carriages caught fire, passengers were locked in their compartments as was the custom in continental Europe at the time.〔 The fire was so intense that the number of fatalities could not be determined, with estimates varying between 52〔 and 200, and hundreds of people were seriously injured. Among the deaths was the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville and his family;〔 his remains were identified by Dumontier, a doctor and a phrenologist, from casts he had made of the skull. Some religious groups claimed that the passengers had been punished for travelling on a Sunday. A chapel named "Notre-Dame-des-Flammes" (English: ''Our Lady of the Flames'') was built in Meudon in memory of the victims; this was listed as a ''Monument historique'' in 1938, but delisted in 1959 and demolished soon after. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Versailles rail accident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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