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