The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (also called…

The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (also called the Ashtabula Horror or the Ashtabula Bridge Disaster), a train disaster caused by bridge failure in far northeastern Ohio on December 29, 1876, at 7:28 PM, is the worst rail accident in the USA until the Great Train Wreck of 1918.

The rescue attempt is feeble at best because of the ill-preparedness of the nearby station to respond to emergencies.

Of one hundred and fifty-nine passengers and crew on board that night, sixty-four people are injured and ninety-two are killed or die afterward from injuries sustained in the crash (forty-eight of the fatalities are unrecognizable or consumed in the flames).

It is unclear how many died of the fall, separate from the blaze.

Matters are made worse by the heavy snow the area had just received.