50325 from Trecate to Gricignano-Teverola,[4] hauled by Class E655 locomotive E 655 175 with 14 tank wagons[5] was derailed at Viareggio at 23:48 local time (21:48 UTC) on 29 June 2009.

[8] Some of the wagons were owned by KVG Kesselwagen, a division of GATX, and leased to ExxonMobil and Erg (the owners of the oil refinery where the train left),[9] were reported to have been carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

[15] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Viareggio "to take control of the situation", but he received boos and cries of "go home".

[17] The Direzione Generale per le Investigazioni Ferroviarie,[6] a section of the Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport[18] opened an investigation into the cause of the accident.

[8] Italian union CGIL is reported to have blamed the decrepit state of the rolling stock;[16] the maintenance of the wagon was the responsibility of GATX.

[14][21] Pending the official conclusions of the commissions of inquiry the probable cause of the accident is attributable to structural failure of an axle of the carriage of the first tank wagon derailed.

The first instance trial ended with ten accused acquitted and the conviction of the others, including the former Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) CEOs Mauro Moretti and Michele Mario Elia.

[3][24] However, the Court of Lucca imposed the highest penalties (from six to eight years) on the defendants of the companies Gatx Rail and Jungenthal, responsible for the mechanical problems that caused the accident.

[27] With sentence of 8 January 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the criminal responsibility for the crime of culpable railway disaster of 11 people (of which 9 belonging - at the time of the facts - to the companies responsible for maintenance activities / revision, Gatx Rail Germany, Gatx Rail Austria, Jungenthal, Cima Riparazioni; one belonging to Trenitalia and one to FS Logistica); the Court also annulled the sentence pronounced by the Court of Appeal against the positions of the former CEOs of RFI (Michele Mario Elia and Mauro Moretti, the latter also former CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato) and 3 other people, deferring all to a new appeal judgment.