Fatal technology disasters that went down in history

Fatal technology disasters that went down in history - Technological accidents are common and some can be downright deadly. Some of the most famous disasters in human history can be attributed to machine failures and design flaws. The most recent accident in March involving a self-driving car and a pedestrian once again highlighted the flaws of technology despite design precision and safety precautions. In the following gallery, scroll through some of the largest and most deadly technology disasters of all time.

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Self-driving car accident - One of the most recent technology disasters took place in March of this year when a self-driving car hit and killed a woman.

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Self-driving car accident - The car failed to detect the 49-year-old woman crossing the street with her bicycle, as reported by The Verge. The incident is seen as the first autonomous vehicle accident to kill a human.

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Push button ignition - Keyless ignitions are all the rage in new car models. While they can be convenient and helpful for drivers, they have also been linked to several fatal accidents. One of the most common accidents that can occur with a keyless ignition car is when drivers forget to turn off the car.

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Push button ignition - In 2012, a Florida couple was found dead in their home from carbon monoxide poisoning that had seeped into the house from the attached garage after forgetting to turn off the car, as reported on searcylaw.com.

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Plane crash - The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in 1985 was the deadliest single-aircraft crash in history.

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Plane crash - Improper repairs to the tail of the aircraft caused a rapid decompression during the flight that ripped off the tail and brought 520 crew and passengers down to their deaths, according to website Network Computing.

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The Atlantic Empress/Aegean Captain collision - A collision between two oil supertankers occurred on July 19, 1979.

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The Atlantic Empress/Aegean Captain collision - The collision, caused by faulty steering and brake design coupled with bad weather, killed 26 people and spilled more than 185 million liters of oil into the sea, as reported by MIT Technology Review.

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The Eschede train derailment - In 1998, the Inter City Express line in northern Germany was the first high-speed train to suffer a fatal accident.

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The Eschede train derailment - A crack in one of the new tires designed to improve passenger comfort caused one of the cars to derail, which proceeded to collide with a pillar holding up a bridge. The bridge collapsed on top of the train and killed 101 people, according to MIT Technology Review.

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Texas City disaster - A shipment of ammonium nitrate (used as fertilizer) detonated on a ship in Texas City, Texas, USA, in 1947, killing over 500 people and injuring thousands more, according to Network Computing.

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Texas City disaster - A lack of precautions in the transport of the explosives allowed the material to detonate after coming into contact with a fire that had been started by a cigarette.

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Port Chicago disaster - Similar to the Texas City disaster, this accident involved an ammunition explosion on a cargo vessel at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, USA, in 1944.

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Port Chicago disaster - Dangerous working conditions and a lack of precautions taken around safe-munition handling caused an explosion that killed 320 people and injured another 390, according to website Network Computing.

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Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - When the shuttle flew apart in space on January 28, 1986, it took seven lives with it.

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Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - The well-known disaster involved a failure of the O-ring that sealed the shuttle's rocket booster.

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The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse - On July 17, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, a "floating walkway" collapsed in a Hyatt Regency hotel.

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The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse - A flawed design in the connectors holding up the walkways caused them to collapse, killing 114 in the accident, according to MIT Technology Review.

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Titanic sinking - The sinking of the supposedly "unsinkable" ship on April 14, 1912, will forever remind us of our human hubris.

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Titanic sinking - A series of factors contributed to the ship's sinking that fateful night, including several design flaws. For example, the iron plates holding together the steel plates towards the bow and the stern were too weak, allowing the ship to rip apart too quickly after colliding with the iceberg.

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The Iroquois Theater blaze - This is another case of a lack of safety precautions due to the belief that the structure is indestructible. Chicago’s Iroquois Theater was boasted as fireproof.

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The Iroquois Theater blaze - However, after a fire started backstage, the asbestos curtain that was supposed to fall and prevent the fire from spreading got caught and 602 people trapped inside ended up perishing, according to MIT Technology Review. The theater did not include firefighting equipment nor a sprinkler system and the doors barred people from exiting once inside the theater.

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Chernobyl disaster - The infamous nuclear accident in 1986 in Ukraine killed 60 people, but there are claims that thousands more died later due to radiation exposure.

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Chernobyl disaster - The cause of the accident is said to be a flawed reactor design and poorly trained employees, according to world-nuclear.org.

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Machchhu dam failure - A dam failure in India in 1979 killed between an estimated 5,000 and 15,000 people after heavy rain and flooding hit the area, according to Network Computing.

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Machchhu dam failure - Underwhelming engineering of the dam did not prepare it for the worst case scenario and its collapse under the pressure of the water caused 3.7 to 9.1 meter-high floods to inundate nearby villages, according to website Network Computing.

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Bhopal disaster - The Union Carbide Facility in Bhopal, India, experienced a gas leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) (used to manufacture pesticides) in 1984. The accident killed between 4,000 to 30,000 due to both the initial exposure and gas-related injuries, as outlined on website Network Computing.

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Bhopal disaster - A report on the accident blamed the gas leak on faulty equipment and maintenance, according to UPI.

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Coal mine - A fatal coal mining disaster occurred in Benxi, Liaoning, China, in 1942.

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Coal mine - Poor working conditions and containment design caused a gas and coal-dust explosion in the mine that killed over 1,500 miners, making the disaster the deadliest in coal-mining history, as reported on Network Computing.

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