Great Train Wreck of 1918
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| Date | July 9, 1918 |
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| Time | 7:20 am |
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Country | United States |
| Operator | Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway |
| Type of incident | Collision |
| Cause | Human error |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 2 |
| Deaths | 101 |
| Injuries | 171 |
The Great Train Wreck of 1918 occurred on July 9, 1918, in Nashville, Tennessee. Two passenger trains, operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway ("NC&StL"), collided head-on, costing at least 101 lives and injuring an additional 171. It is considered the worst rail accident in United States history, though estimates of the death toll of this accident overlap with that of the Malbone Street Wreck in Brooklyn the same year.
The two trains involved were the No. 4, scheduled to depart Nashville for Memphis, Tennessee at 7:00 a.m., and the No. 1 from Memphis, about a half-hour late for a scheduled arrival in Nashville at 7:10 a.m. At about 7:20 a.m., the two trains collided while traversing a section of single track line known as "Dutchman's Curve" west of downtown, in the present-day neighborhood of Belle Meade. The trains were each traveling at an estimated 50 to 60 miles per hour; the impact derailed them both, and destroyed several wooden cars.
An investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) attributed the cause of the accident to several factors, notably serious errors by the crew of train No. 4 and tower operators, all of whom failed to properly account for the presence of the train No. 1 on the line. The ICC also pointed to a lack of a proper system for the accurate determination of train positions and noted that the wooden construction of the cars greatly increased the number of fatalities.
At 7:07 a.m. in the morning of the accident, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis ("NC&StL") train No. 4 departed Union Station in Nashville, bound for Memphis. The train, pulled by locomotive No. 282, consisted of two mail and baggage cars and six wooden coaches.
Meanwhile, train No. 1, pulled by locomotive No. 281, was heading into Nashville from Memphis. Containing one baggage car, six wooden coaches, and two Pullman sleeping cars of steel construction, train No. 1 had departed McKenzie four hours earlier, and passed Bellevue at 7:09 a.m., thirty-five minutes behind schedule.
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