Balvano train disaster

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Balvano train disaster
Some of the corpses gathered in the Balvano railway station
Details
Date	3 March 1944 after 00:50
Location	Balvano, Basilicata
Country	Kingdom of Italy
Line	Battipaglia–Metaponto railway
Operator	Ferrovie dello Stato
Incident type	Carbon monoxide poisoning
Cause	excessive weight; bad quality coal; lack of natural ventilation in the tunnel
Statistics
Trains	1
Deaths	517 (official figure by Italian government)
Injured	90 poisoned

The Balvano train disaster was the deadliest railway accident in Italian history and one of the worst railway disasters ever.^[1][2] It occurred on the night between 2–3 March 1944 in Balvano, Basilicata. Over 500 people in a steam-hauled, coal-burning freight train (mostly stowaways) died of carbon monoxide poisoning during a protracted stall in a tunnel.^[3]