Editing Derailment (section)

== History ==
{{expand section|date=January 2015}}
The first recorded train derailment in history is known as the [[Hightstown rail accident]] in New Jersey that occurred on 8 November 1833. The train was traveling between Hightstown and Spotswood, New Jersey, and derailed after an axle broke on one of the carriages as a result of a journal box catching fire. The derailment resulted in one fatality and twenty-three injuries, and it was recorded that both New York railroad magnate [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] and former U.S president [[John Quincy Adams]] were on the train as it took place, in which Adams wrote about the event in his journal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Train Derailments and Collisions |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/train-derailments-and-collisions/ |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia |language=en-US}}</ref>

During the 19th century derailments were commonplace, but progressively improved safety measures have resulted in a stable lower level of such incidents. A sampling of annual approximate numbers of derailments in the United States includes 3000 in 1980, 1000 in 1986, 500 in 2010, and 1000 in 2022.<ref name="bibel">George D Bibel, ''Train Wreck – the Forensics of Rail Disasters'', Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0590-2}}</ref><ref name="wu">Huimin Wu and Nicholas Wilson, ''Railway Vehicle Derailment and Prevention'', in ''Handbook of Railway Vehicle Dynamics''</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Joe|last=Hernandez|title=There are about 3 U.S. train derailments per day. They aren't usually major disasters|url=https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161921856/there-are-about-3-u-s-train-derailments-per-day-they-arent-usually-major-disaste|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=9 March 2023|access-date=17 March 2023}}</ref>

Derailments in the United States<ref>{{cite web |title=Train Fatalities, Injuries, and Accidents by Type of Accident |publisher=Bureau of Transportation Statistics |url=https://www.bts.gov/content/train-fatalities-injuries-and-accidents-type-accidenta}}</ref>
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