In Hindsight: A Compendium of Business Continuity Case Studies

CHAPTER 14: THE ÅSTA TRAIN ACCIDENT, NORWAY, JANUARY 2000 – JON SIGURD JACOBSEN

‘Most disastrous train wrecks occur in Asia and Africa. Fatalities there are on the rise, whereas such deaths are decreasing in Europe. But accidents still happen in modern Western countries.’ – (Hammer, 2012).

The history books show that train crashes are nothing new and were regular events in the 19^th century when the railways were in their infancy. Even now in the 21^st century, accidents around the globe still abound. This case study looks at a head on collision shortly after the arrival of the new millennium, which resulted in one of Norway’s worst rail disasters.

Development of the Norwegian Railway Network

Norway’s first railway was commissioned in 1854 and ...