Train derailments have drastically declined, but danger always there
During the morning commute one summer day in 1958, a horror show unfolded on the tracks.
Two locomotives and two coaches derailed before plunging from the Newark Bay lift bridge between Elizabeth and Bayonne, and another train car dangled precariously from the drawbridge before toppling.
Among the 48 killed in the Sept. 15, 1958, accident were Snuffy Stirnweiss, a New York Yankees infielder who played on three World Series-winning teams in the 1940s, the mayor of Shrewsbury and a relative of author Kurt Vonnegut.
Few train accidents were so dramatic, but derailments used to be common and there were more than 3,000 a year in the U.S. in 1980, before technology and safety upgrades reduced that number to about 500 annually.
