The railway line from Dublin to Waterford City passes through the townland of Dunkitt. Dunkitt is located just over 6km north of Waterford City. In 1856 Dunkitt was the scene of a rail accident in which five people lost their lives.
The railway line from Dublin reached Kilkenny City in 1848. The line was extended southwards and reached Dunkitt in May 1853. Dunkitt was the terminus for Waterford City from 1853 to 1854. Waterford railway station was opened on August 26th 1864.
On the day of the accident at Dunkitt a track worker failed to operate the points correctly. This caused a passenger train to be misrouted into a sidings where it crashed into a ballast train causing the deaths of five people. The ensuing investigation determined the primary cause of the accident was Pointsman error. The secondary cause was given as inadequate training.
The rail accident at Dunkitt led to the deaths of five people in the year 1856 On This Day.
Photo by National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Tough for Salmon by Bernie Goldbach on 2005-10-07 16:59:54
Dunkitt was only the Waterford station from 1853 to 1854, there was also a station in what is now the freight yard from 1854 to 1864.
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