First rail fatality

The earliest recorded rail fatality occurred on December 5, 1821, when a carpenter, David Brook, was walking home from Leeds, England, along the Middleton Railway in a blinding sleet storm. He failed to see or hear an approaching train of coal wagons drawn by one of the Blenkinsop/Murray engines and was fatally injured.

The first passenger-train accident in the US occurred on November 9, 1833 on the Camden  Amboy Railroad between Spotswood and Hightown, New Jersey. One carriage overturned and 12 of the 24 passengers on board were seriously injured. The first large railway accident on record occurred in France on May 8, 1842. A 15-coach express from Versailles to Paris crashed when the axle of one of the two engines broke and several coaches piled on top of it. Locked compartment doors prevented passengers from escaping and 48 perished in the flames. Famous author Charles Dickens had a narrow escape on June 9, 1865, when a train derailed at Staplehurst, Kent, England, after running onto a viaduct that was being repaired. Ten people were killed but Dickens escaped unharmed, although it is said that he never quite recovered from the shock and died five years later to the day.