In August 2013, a freight train was on its way between Kiruna and Luleå. The train was running at 85 kilometers per hour when the locomotive driver suddenly saw that the rail later on the track was bent inwards. It was a solar curve, which occurs after poor maintenance and high temperatures.

- I understood that the risk of derailing was very high and prepared me for the worst. The locomotive rolled over the solar curve and rolled sharply, says the driver afterwards in the Swedish Transport Administration's investigation.

The locomotive passed the solar curve, but then the driver looked in the rear view mirror.

- It sprayed gravel, the carriages derailed with a violent force and made holes for noise.

A total of nine wagons were tracked out. Several of them had contained dangerous goods, and it was found that debris from it may have remained in the wagons. The damage to the track cost 3.5 million to recover. The Swedish Transport Administration has later determined that the track was not stable enough.

Mail trains derailed - gear cracked

Assignment review has taken part in investigations conducted by the Swedish Transport Administration from serious accidents since 2013. They show that a total of 16 trains have been derailed in places where the maintenance of the railway has failed.

Several of the trains have derailed after driving over solar curves. But the investigations also say that there were derailments that happened where the gears were so exhausted that they burst when the trains rolled over them - and about rails with known deficiencies that should have been replaced long ago.

- Of course it is not good if it leads to accidents. But we see a number of cases where we have actually been able to participate and influence. For example, last summer, when we saw major risks in the system, we chose to say that now we do not allow rail traffic when there is a risk of a solar curve, ”says Lena Erixon, Director General of the Swedish Transport Administration.

Freight traffic is worst affected

In all 16 accidents, freight trains have been derailed, which is most easily explained by the fact that they often drive on lanes with lower standards.

But there are also cases where passenger trains have been really close to being hit.

An example occurred in 2014, on the main track outside Huddinge. Even there, a mail train derailed, but just before that a fast train had passed the same place for 160 kilometers per hour. On board were both staff and passengers.

Afterwards, the Swedish Transport Administration has found that it was a broken gear that caused the mail train to derail and that it probably broke even when the highway train passed through it.

Here you can read summaries of the Swedish Transport Administration's investigations on the 16 recesses.

Assignment review report The railway death traps were broadcast in SVT1 on Wednesday, February 6, 20:00 - there is a look at SVT Play.