Being in a hurry is never a real good idea. We see that when people have an accident blowing through a stop light and running into a car in the intersection, or when people find themselves in the midst of a road rage situation, because one driver or the other cut someone off in traffic. Sometimes running late can’t be helped. Things are not always within our control. Nevertheless, rushing to make up for lost time can have dire consequences. On October 22, 1895, at 4:00pm, the engineer of Granville–Paris Express found that out when he overshot the buffer stop at its Gare Montparnasse terminus. The engineer was, trying to make up for lost time, but when the train came into the station, the train was still at a speed that exceeded the safe stopping speed, and then to make matters worse, the railway air brake failed. As the train came into the station, it smashed through the buffer stop, crossed the station concourse, and crashed through the station wall. Then, the locomotive fell onto the Place de Rennes below, landing on its nose. While the passengers survived the crash, a woman on the street, Marie-Augustine Aguillard, was killed by falling debris. 
The train was operated by Chemins de fer de l’Ouest, and featured steam locomotive Number 721 (a type 2-4-0, French notation 120) pulling three luggage vans, a post van, and six passenger coaches. The train left Granville on time at 8:45am, but by 4:00pm, it was running late with 131 passengers onboard. As the train approached the station going 25–37 mph, the driver applied the Westinghouse air brake, but due to the excessive speed, the brake was ineffective. The locomotive brakes alone couldn’t stop the train, which plowed into the buffers, crossed the 98-foot station concourse, broke through a 24-inch-thick wall, and fell 33 feet below onto the Place de Rennes. Marie-Augustine Aguillard was filling in for her newspaper vendor husband, was hit by falling masonry and killed. Two passengers, a fireman, two guards, and a passerby were injured.
Accidents, no matter how major or minor, always have consequences. Someone is at fault, and when death or injury occur because of negligence on the part of the person at fault, someone has to pay the consequences. Of course, nothing can bring back the person killed or take away the injuring that were inflicted, but in the eyes of the law, restitution must be made somehow. In the case of the engineer of the Granville–Paris Express, that restitution came in the form of a two-month prison sentence and a fine of 50 francs for speeding into the station. One of the guards was fined 25 francs as he had been preoccupied with paperwork and failed to apply the handbrake. The railway company settled with the family of the deceased woman and arranged for the education of her two young children, as well as proposing future employment for them. I’m sure that Marie-Augustine Aguillard’s family thought the sentence was too light, but that was the sentence imposed. The reality is that the engineer most likely never really got over the fact that his negligence had caused the loss of Aguillard’s life.
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