The Balvano train disaster was the deadliest railway accident in Italian history and one of the worst railway disasters ever.[1][2] It occurred on the night between 2–3 March 1944 in Balvano, Basilicata. Over 500 people in a steam-hauled, coal-burning freight train (mostly stowaways) died of carbon monoxide poisoning during a protracted stall in a tunnel.[3]