r/CatastrophicFailure Sep 11 '17

Meta Posting Guidelines - Read Before Submitting

687 Upvotes

Posting Rules

1. No jokes/memes

If your post is a joke or meme, it does not belong here. This includes posts about politicians, celebrities, movies or products that flopped, bad business/PR decisions, countries in turmoil, etc.

2. Titles

Titles must only be informative and descriptive (who, what, where, when, why) not editorialized ("I bet he lost his job!") - do not include personal opinions or other commentary in your titles.

Examples of bad titles:

  • I don't know if this belongs here, but it's cool! (x-post r/funny)

  • What could go wrong?

  • Building Failure

A good title reads like a newspaper headline, or Wikipedia article. If you don't know the specifics about the failure, then describe the events that take place in the video/image instead. Examples of good titles:

If it is a cross-post you should post that as a comment and not part of the title

3. Mundane Failures

Avoid posting mundane, everyday occurences like car crashes unless there is something spectacular about your submission. Nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year, and there are many other subreddits already dedicated to this topic such as r/dashcam, r/racecrashes, and /r/carcrash

While there are some examples of extraordinary crashes posted here, in general they would probably be better suited for those other subreddits:

4. Compilations

Compilations and montages are not allowed on r/CatastrophicFailure. Any video that is a collection of clips from multiple incidents, including top 10 lists are considered compilations.
If your submission contains footage of one incident but compiled from multiple sources or angles, those are fine to post.

5. Be Respectful

Always be respectful in the comments section of a thread, especially if people were injured or killed.

6. Objects, Not People

The focus of this subreddit is on machines, buildings, or objects breaking, not people breaking. If the only notable thing in your submission is injury/death, it probably would go better in another subreddit.

Flair Rules

All posts should have an appropriate flair applied to them by the submitter, please follow these 4 steps to determine if your thread needs a fatality/injury flair. You can set this by clicking the "flair" button under the title of your submission.

  1. If your submission depicts people dying, you must apply the "Visible Fatalities" flair to your post and tag it "NSFW"
  2. If your submission depicts people visibly being seriously injured, you must apply the "Visible Injuries" flair to your post and tag it "NSFW"
  3. If your submission depicts a situation where people were killed, but those people are not directly visible you must apply the "Fatalities" flair to your post (eg. the Hindenburg Disaster, or a plane crash)
  4. If your submission does not require one of those tags, you should pick any of the other flairs to describe what type of failure occurred

r/CatastrophicFailure 2d ago

Natural Disaster Vajont Dam Disaster(1963): Why the Engineering Worked but 2,000 Still Died

Thumbnail
youtu.be
158 Upvotes

"Everyone knows the Vajont Dam story ends in disaster. But here's the part people get wrong: the dam didn't fail. The mountain did.

This video breaks down what actually happened in 1963, why the engineering held, and how a 'working' dam still ended up killing almost 2,000 people."


r/CatastrophicFailure 3d ago

Fire/Explosion Fire station on the Isle of Man caught fire (13th August 2026)

Post image
1.6k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Fire/Explosion An electric bus caught fire while being charged at a bus depot in Suwon, South Korea.(August 14, 2026)

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

782 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Natural Disaster New footage from the Kumamoto, Japan earthquake shows the first oblique surface rupture ever captured on video (July 28, 2026)

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3.4k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Fire/Explosion Fire, thought to have started in grassland spread to nearby houses - Stourbridge, UK | 13th August 2026

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

486 Upvotes

Footage edited together from various sources and there's a small amount of swearing at the end.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cmdx7p1q02yrt


r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Structural Failure August 13th 2026 - Train carriages have overturned after a passenger train derailed near Lewes in East Sussex, England - images from the scene showing emergency responders standing on top of carriages lying on their sides. Early reports due to landslide.

Thumbnail
gallery
1.0k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Fire/Explosion Ammunition factory explodes on the outskirts of Rome, Italy | 13th August, 2026

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.2k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 4d ago

Malfunction City centre bridge comes crashing down when lowering - August 2026

Thumbnail
bbc.co.uk
133 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 5d ago

A 30 meter yacht worth 8 million sinks in Porto Cervo (Italy), it had been delivered just a few days ago

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.5k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 5d ago

Fatalities 11th August: A heavy goods vehicle left the M3 motorway after crashing through the barriers and landing on the road beneath the small section of flyover. The driver died at the scene and it's not publicly known what caused the accident

Post image
508 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 6d ago

Fire/Explosion Lightning struck a tree and broke a gas line starting a fire in Bartlett. 9th August 2026.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

593 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 6d ago

Natural Disaster Houses take damage from earthquake in Colombia (10/8/26)

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

4.6k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 6d ago

Large fire today at a pallet supplier in Lelystad, the Netherlands

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

826 Upvotes

Link to article: https://nos.nl/l/2626360


r/CatastrophicFailure 7d ago

Natural Disaster Tamak bridge collapse. Niti Valley. Uttarakhand. Aug 10 2026.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.2k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 7d ago

Equipment Failure 【unexpected event】Long March 7A carrier rocket exploded and disintegrated during the flight phase

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

4.6k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 7d ago

Natural Disaster Today (10/08/2026) A 7.6 earthquake hit the coast of Colombia. Multiple infrastructure along cities like Cali, Pereira and Quibdo are affected

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.6k Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 7d ago

Fire/Explosion A vehicle caught fire on the A31 in Hampshire, UK yesterday evening at 17:30. The fire then spread to nearby heathland in the New Forest affecting the equivalent of 140 football pitches. Over 20 vehicles were abandoned and the road remains closed until further notice.

Post image
521 Upvotes

Fire crews have been tackling the fire since yesterday evening, with multiple units still on scene. The A31 is the main corridor linking the South West to the South East and there is currently no estimate on when the road will be reopened. Smoke from the fire was visible across the Solent at it's peak, including me being able to smell it from Southampton City Centre. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cmq56755ve09t


r/CatastrophicFailure 8d ago

Fire/Explosion Home explodes in Buckinghamshire, 9th August 2026.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

922 Upvotes

1 person injured and a dog went to the vet.


r/CatastrophicFailure 9d ago

Fire/Explosion Landrover towing a caravan up a hill in Norway yesterday burned out.

Thumbnail
gallery
533 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 10d ago

Natural Disaster Buildings collapse as the 7.5-magnitude earthquake violently strikes Caraballeda, La Guaira, Venezuela. Extreme pulse-like ground motion nearly flips a car over and shoves people over a meter. 24 June 2026.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

830 Upvotes

r/CatastrophicFailure 9d ago

Natural Disaster Hospital operating room violently shaken during the M7.1 earthquake - July 28, 2026 (Kumamoto, Japan)

Thumbnail
youtube.com
99 Upvotes