Over 500 people suffocated on a train in 1944

Imagine being stuck in a tunnel on a stalled train while the engine burns the equivalent of toxic dirt. In 1944, an insanely overloaded Italian freight train stalled in the damp Balvano tunnel. Thanks to wartime rationing, they were burning low-grade, highly toxic coal. Because the train was too heavy to reverse, the crew and over 500 stowaways quietly asphyxiated in their sleep.