A terrible catastrophe was about to be written in the history books, on March 28, 1978, the train accident in Toulouse. Between the apeadero and the station, a train with a speed of 80 km/h, carrying 52 tons of hydrocyanic acid from Lyon to Burgos, left the railway.

At 01:30 the red alarm went off as soon as the accident occurred and the then mayor, Iñaki Linazasoro, turned to the firefighters to avoid a possible spill; hydrocyanic acid is explosive, contagious and toxic, and several citizens were at risk of death if this material had exploded.

The train covered the entire railway after the accident and, due to the risk of hydrocyanation, the experts foresaw the transfer of the vehicle in three phases. Before anything began, the residents of the nearby homes were evacuated and the four lanes were cut off while the work continued. Thus, 70% of the contents were first moved from one cistern to another, and the cisterns were then completely emptied. Finally, the tanks stood up and all the acid was removed.

The transfer of the train in which the accident occurred involved 90 people and also a medical team. It should be noted that a firefighter suffered a slight intoxication on the first day, but was quickly recovered. Linazasoro also ordered the evacuation of the citizens of the railway area, and 5% of the Tolosians left the village by themselves, slightly anticipating the Easter holidays.

If the danger of hydrocyanic acid were not low, the accident could have been even more serious on 28 March 1978, had fate so desired. In fact, the Puerta del Sol train that was going to Paris was going straight from Vitoria to San Sebastián and, in fact, if it had followed the corresponding schedule, it would have collided with the derailed train, causing a huge disaster. However, the aforementioned train was delayed for half an hour, and no tragedy occurred.

Those who were children at the time still remember how people came to see the damage caused by the accident. The media of the time also gave a great echo to the accident and the subsequent works, both in the Basque Country and in Spain; Deia, El Diario Vasco, Egin, La Vanguardia and in the hemeroteces of revelers such as ABC are several, news about the incident in Tolosa.

The then mayor, Iñaki Linazasoro, confessed in an interview that the days surrounding the train accident were the hardest moments of his life because of his dedication as mayor. And it is precisely this deep concern that the Tolosa writer Carlos Linazasoro –son of Iñaki Linazasoro– took this train accident of 1978 as a starting point to write his recently published short novel 6012. 6012 was the number of the train that suffered the accident, and the writer has launched the book almost from that tragedy.

for plastic and feed additive

Hydrocyanic acid (CNH) was discovered in the early 19th century. Although it is not explosive in itself, it is the high level of pollution it can cause that makes it dangerous, as well as its ease of boiling: At the level of 26.5.

At the time of the accident, the industry used hydrocyanic acid to acquire a plastic called plexiglass, among other things. In order to acquire this material, they seemed to take advantage of several processes, as explained by the revelators of the time.

Together with plastic, however, hydrocyanic acid also had the potential to strengthen feeds. And it was precisely for this purpose that the acid was flowing inside the cistern that had been removed from the railway in Toulouse; the merchandise was on its way to a plant in Burgos.

This news has been published by the Portal de Tolosaldea and we have brought it to LUZ thanks to the license CC-by-sa.