A passenger train from Folkestone to London on the South-Eastern Railway encountered a work gang repairing a bridge near Staplehurst in Kent that had just pulled up two rails. The train derailed and eight out of the fourteen cars went off the bridge into the stream below. Ten people were killed and others in the four crushed first-class carriages, including the novelist Charles Dickens travelling with his mistress, narrowly escaped death. Dickens was much affected by the incident and avoided trains when he could from then on. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chronicle, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1865 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1866), 71-72.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Crime/Disasters
