August the 30th, 2026 – One of the largest railway accidents in all of Europe occurred in Zagreb 50 years ago today. It tragically ended the lives of 167 passengers.
Turning the clock back 50 years, to this day in 1974, one of the largest railway accidents in Europe occurred in Zagreb. As Index recalls, a train arriving at the station overturned, tragically killing 167 passengers. All nine passenger carriages overturned, and the cause of the accident was the train entering the station too quickly; it then derailed on a curve and overturned. The train, travelling from Athens to Dortmund, was called the Direct Orient. That August it was mainly carrying guest workers returning from their annual holiday to Germany.
167 people died from smoke inhalation or catastrophic injuries
One of them left his compartment just before the Zagreb station to light a cigarette with a colleague. Then the carriage suddenly began to sway, only to overturn a few seconds later. The carriage continued sliding across the ground, and soon screams could be heard from the compartments. When the carriage finally stopped, the trapped passengers began to suffocate from the smoke. The compartment doors could not be opened, so they smashed the windows to save themselves. Around forty passengers could not be identified because of their severe injuries and were buried together at Mirogoj cemetery. The rescue operation involved the police as well as the army, which quickly appeared at the scene of the accident.
exhausted workers were blamed for the tragedy
The accident was caused by the driver and his assistant. On the way from Vinkovci to Zagreb they stopped only in Slavonski Brod, so the journey did not involve many duties. Fatigue then overcame them and both fell asleep. They woke up only when they had already arrived in Zagreb, and by then they could no longer slow the train, which was racing at a little over 100 km/h, although trains normally slow to 50 km/h before the station. Later investigations revealed that the train could have derailed on the curve between Ludina and Novoselec, but they had been lucky then.
It was also established that the driver and his assistant had been working continuously for 45 hours at that moment. After this accident, working-time legislation was regulated, stipulating that such work could not be performed for more than 6 hours without a break. The driver was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and his assistant to eight. The Direct Orient tragedy remains the largest railway accident on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and today it is still among the five largest in Europe.
