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The Tangiwai disaster is New Zealand's worst rail accident. It occurred at 22:21 on 24 December 1953 when the Whangaehu River bridge collapsed beneath a Wellington to Auckland express passenger train at Tangiwai (RIVER OF TEARS) in the central North Island of New Zealand. The locomotive and first six carriages derailed into the river, killing 151 people. The subsequent Board of Inquiry found that the accident was caused by the collapse of the tephra dam holding back nearby Mount Ruapehu's crater lake, creating a large lahar in the Whangaehu River, which destroyed one of the bridge piers at Tangiwai only minutes before the train reached the bridge. The inter-island ferry Wahine sank in Wellington Harbour on April 10, 1968 after it was overcome by the worst storm recorded in New Zealand. Fifty-one people lost their lives.This TVNZ documentary provides a new look at the disaster by concentrating on some of the survivors and their day of horror, together with animation which illustrates, for the first time, how the Wahine succumbed in a terrible storm, to become one of New Zealand's worst sea tragedies.

Actors: New Zealand Disasters

Number of Discs: 1

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