1953 Tangiwai disaster

Part of a wall gave way above the Whangaehu Valley on Christmas Eve, releasing a deluge of water that picked up mud and boulders as it ran down. The lahar reached Tangiwai between 10.10 and 10.15 p.m. and destroyed two of the rail bridge's supporting piles just before the Wellington to Auckland express arrived, and the train derailed into the flooded river about 10 kilometres west of Waiouru. Of 285 passengers, 151 died and 134 survived.

Date
1953-12-24
Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
151
What the pin marks
Tangiwai, where the lahar took out the rail bridge over the Whangaehu River, as the cited page positions it.
Where the position is published
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangiwai_disaster

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: rail, lahar, new zealand, bridge collapse

Coordinates: -39.46417, 175.57667

Part of Bridge failures that killed 50 or more people since 1900

More in Bridge failures that killed 50 or more people since 1900

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