Technological Disasters

Accidents are often treated as trivial surprises unattached to the main flow of history, but there are three ways that they can be fitted into the bigger picture.

For one thing, the size and nature of technological accidents is directly related to a society's level of technology. Until the development of jumbo jets in the 1970s, airplanes didn't carry enough people to produce death tolls comparable to a shipwreck. Before the invention of nuclear reactors and industrial chemicals, meltdowns and spills weren't a problem. Meanwhile, modern urban fire departments have reduced the hazard of city-wide fires that gutted so many earlier communities.

Secondly, a disproportionate number of large accidents happen during war. Under the urgency of wartime, many safety precautions fall by the wayside. Dangerous equipment and military ordinance is shuttled around the globe. Troops are packed into transports. The two concentrations of disasters in the 1910s and 1940s include trainwrecks and explosions that are clearly the accidental side effects of the two World Wars. Major accidents are also associated with civil wars in Colombia, China and Afghanistan.

Thirdly, a spectacular accident can sometimes highlight the carelessness or callousness of a particular regime. The Chernobyl accident, for example, is considered to be one of the major sparks that brought change and eventual collapse to the Soviet Union. Lesser disasters brought about lesser changes in the way things are done.

Accidents that killed more than 500 people:

When	Locale	Country	What	Object	Deaths	Source	Rank
30 Dec. 1903	Chicago	USA		Iroquois Theatre	600 602	C. A.	29
15 June 1904	NY	USA		General Slocum	1000+ 1021 1030	C. A. B.	18
28 June 1904	Rockall Reef	Scotland		Norge	600	C.	30
10 Mar. 1906	Courrieres	France		coal mine	1060	A.C.	15
14 April 1912		Atlantic		Titanic	1500 1503 1490-1517	A. B. C.	11
5 Mar. 1912	Sebastien Point	Spain?		Principe de Asturias	500	A.	40
28 Sept. 1912		Japan		Kichemaru	1000	C.	19
29 May 1914	St. Lawrence R	Canada		Empress of Ireland	1014 1024 1029	B. C. A.	16
7 May 1915	off Irish coast	UK		Lusitania	1195 1198	A. B.	n/a *
24 July 1915	Chicago R.	USA		Eastland	812 800+	B. C.	25
29 Feb. 1916	Mediterranean Sea	France		Provence	3100	B.	6
29 May 1916	St. Lawrence R	Canada		Empress of Ireland	1014 1024 1029	B. C. A.	17
29 Aug. 1916				Hsin Yu	ca. 1000	C.	20
9 July 1917	Scapa Flow	UK		Vanguard	800	C.	26
6 Dec. 1917	Halifax	Canada		Mont Blanc	1600 1635 1654	A. 2000 World Book B.C.	9
12 Dec. 1917	Modane	France		trooptrain	< 550	A.C.	35
13-15 Oct. 1918	Minn. & Wisc.	USA		forest fires	ca. 1000	C.	21
18 March 1921	off Swatow	South China Sea		Hong Kong	1000	B.C.	22
21 Sept. 1921	Oppau	Germany		ammonium nitrate	ca. 600	C.	31
16 Oct. 1926	Yangtze R.	China		Chinese troopship	ca. 1200	C.	12
17 June 1940	the mouth of the Loire	English Channel		Lancastria	5000	Guardian 24 April 2004	n/a *
26 April 1942		Manchuria		Honkeiko Colliery	1549	A.C.	10
14 April 1944	Bombay	India		harbor	700	B.	27
16 Jan. 1944	Leon	Spain			500+	C.	41
30 Jan. 1945	Baltic			Wilhelm Gustloff	ca. 8000 ca. 9100	Guardian 24 April 2004 A.	n/a *
2 Mar. 1944	Salerno	Italy		suffocation in tunnel	521	A.C.	38
15 April 1947	Texas City	USA		Amonium nitrate explosion	516 561	A. B.	36
1 Nov. 1947	Yingkow	China		troopship	6000		4
3 Dec. 1948	Shanghai	China		Kiangya	1100	C.	13
27 Jan. 1949		so. China		liner and collier collide	600+	C.	32
2 Sept. 1949	Chongqing	China		waterfront	1700	A.	8
5-9 Dec. 1952	London	UK		smog	4000 12000	A.; Guardian 5 Dec. 2002 BBC 5 Dec. 2002; NPR 11 Dec. 2002	3
26 Sept. 1954	Tsugaru Strait	Japan		Toya Maru	1000 1172	A. B.C.	23
7 Aug. 1956	Cali	Colombia		army trucks	1100	A.	14
3 Aug. 1975	nr Canton	China		collision, 2 boats	ca. 500	C.	42
27 Mar. 1977	Tenerife	Canary Is		2 plane collision	582 583	A. C.	33
27 Jan. 1981	Java Sea	Indonesia		Tamponas II	580	B.C.	34
2 Nov. 1982		Afghanistan		Salang tunnel	1000-3000	B.	7
3 Dec. 1984	Bhopal	India		Union Carbide plant	2000+ 2800 6500-16000 15000-20000	A. 2000 World Book Wallechinsky's 20th Century: History with the Boring Parts Left Out.: "through 1994" news.bbc.co.uk 2002-8-28: 3,000 w/i hours; 15,000 over the years. ("Little hope...); 20,000 linked to disaster ("US Boss...")	2
12 Aug. 1985		Japan		Japan Airl. 747	520	A.C.	39
26 April 1987	Chernobyl	USSR		nuclear reactor	41 8000 30000	www.uic.com.au/nip22.htm Columbia Encyclopedia, "Chernobyl": "died as a result of the accident and during its cleanup." www.abc.net.au 2001-04-25	1
21 Dec. 1987	s. of Manilla	Phillipines		Dona Paz & Victor	1,500 4,341 4,375	C. CNN Ships of the World	5
3 June 1989	Urals	USSR		pipeline/train	500	A.	44
14 Dec. 1991	Red Sea	Egypt		Salem Express	533	C.	37
17 Feb. 1993	w. of Port-au-Prince	Haiti		Neptune	1000 275+	A. C.	28
28 Sept. 1994	Baltic Sea	SW Finland		Estonia	900+	A.C.	24
21 May 1996	Lake Victoria	Tanzania		ferry	500+	C.	43

Sources:

1. http://www.infoplease.com
2. 1984 World Almanac
3. Encyclopedia Americana, 2003 ed.

Notes:

Rank: n/a *: As a deliberate act of war rather than an accident, this event is not ranked. I'm listing it here only for comparison.

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Last updated September 2004

Copyright © 1998-2004 Matthew White