1856 Schiedam train accident

In the evening of Sunday 10 August 1856, the second-last train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij on the Amsterdam–Haarlem–Rotterdam railway departed with a delay from Den Haag Centraal Station. It was further delayed because it was busy at all stations that evening. The train left Schiedam Centrum station at 23:07pm local time. After the train was departed, the station master of Schiedam Centrum Station kept the last train from The Hague waiting for seven minutes before it was allowed to continue. There was no track security at that time apart from that a passenger train was only allowed to depart ten minutes after the departure of the preceding train. However, the station master considered seven minutes sufficient because the entire route between Schiedam and Rotterdam only took eight minutes.[8]

The second-last train was stopped by the driver near Delfshaven due to a shock.[9] The train had hit an empty carriage that was standing on the track. After inspection and after the carriage was pushed away from the track by the conductors and the train driver the train moved on within a few minutes.[10][8] After the train moved on again and was riding at a low speed, the last train rammed the train from behind. The last two carriages of the second-last train were derailed and a third one was half shattered but stayed behind the train. The train driver of the second-last train didn't notice the shock and continued to Rotterdam. The train arrived there at around with a half shattered carriage.[4] The two passengers in the derailed rear carriage had been thrown out of the carriage and were minor injured. The second-last carriage with third class passengers was completely destroyed. From the eight or nine people that were in the carriage, three died.[10] The other passengers were injured. Five were seriously injured and other passengers had minor injuries.[4][2][5] Another newspaper article reported 4 deaths and 9 injured.[3]

The people who were killed were

• Hendrik van der Kolk from Rotterdam who was organist in Delft.[12]
• Cornelis Geenemans, billiard maker who was born and lived in The Hague.[12]
• C.W.M. Steinheuer from Amsterdam.[12]

Four people needed surgery or amputations at the Coolsingelziekenhuis in Rotterdam and one person was hospitalized in Schiedam. These people were:[2][3][12]

• Jacobus Molenaar, a 35-years old carpenter who was born in Woerden and lived in Hellevoetsluis. He had head and back injuries.
• Jacobus Paulus de Heer, a 23-years old carpenter. He was born and lived in The Hague and worked in Hellevoetsluis. He had arm injuries.
• Nicolaas Nieuwenhout, a 28-years old billiard maker who lived in The Hague. He had head and legs injuries.
• Maria Verhagen, a 45-years old maid who was born in Utrecht and worked in Rotterdam. She was reported death by one source, but not confirmed by other and later sources. She had severe leg injuries.
• An unnamed personen was hospitalized in Schiedam.[2]

Justice and the board of directors of the railway had launched an investigation.[1] An important aspect that was reported was that the upcoming train was not able to see that it was unsafe because the crew of the train that had stopped after hitting the empty carriage didn’t hung a lamp indicating that the track was not safe.[1] One of the passengers that lost his arms in the disaster, was offered from the society an amount of 186 Dutch Guilder "as a gift". Because the amount was considered too low, it was not accepted.[11] At the time of the accident the trains only had time intervals as safety measures. There were demands in the media for better security measures.[11] Working with time intervals is not safe enough as a similar accident almost happened a month after the accident. In September 1856, the directors of the railways were accused by the Arnhemsche Courant of carelessness after no new safety measures had been implemented yet. This was taken over by many other newspapers and some continued, with the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant stating that the directors have a crucial safety role accidents like this.[7][13][14] Security measures were taken to prevent an accident like this. A signalling block system was installed and all trains got a tail lamp: a red light fixed to end of train indicating the back of a train and showing whether the train is still complete.[6]