Railroad disaster following gas pipeline explosion in Bashkiria

USSR. Bashkir ASSR. Ufa. Twenty-seven-year-old freight train electric locomotive driver Sergei Stolyarov, who, together with his assistant Marat Ganeev, Ashinskaya track section foreman R. Egemgordiev, passenger train conductors S. Muratov and Kh. Dzhangozhizh, evacuated about four hundred victims to a safe zone from the crash site of two oncoming passenger trains No. 211 Novosibirsk - Adler and No. 212 Adler - Novosibirsk on the Ulu-Telyak - Asha section of the Kuibyshev Railway in the Iglinsky District before rescuers arrived. The disaster occurred on June 3, 1989 at 11:14 p.m. Moscow time due to an explosion of liquefied gas due to a leak in the Western Siberia - Ural - Volga Region pipeline, which was laid near the railroad tracks. According to official data, 575 people died in the accident, including 181 children, and 623 people were injured. Viktor Vonog/TASS