Saithia Rail Accident: Driver's viscera sample handed over

[Oracle]

SAINTHIA (WB): 60 people were killed and over 90 passengers injured when a train in high speed tore through the rear of another at the Sainthia station in Birbhum district of West Bengal, after it apparently overshot the signal in the small hours of the day.

Driver M C Dey and assistant driver N K Mandal of the Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express, which collided with the Ranchi-bound Vananchal Express, were among the dead in the accident for which railways are not ruling out sabotage as the cause, PTI reported.

The guard of the Vananchal Express A Mukherjee also died in the mishap which was so severe that the roof and the sides of one of the compartments mounted the road overbridge across the tracks in the station, 191 kms from Kolkata, in Eastern Railway.

A part of another compartment of the Vananchal Express split and fell on the road along the tracks after being thrown over the bridge.

"A total of 60 persons, including three railway employees, have lost their lives in the accident when three rear coaches including one luggage van and two unreserved general second class coaches of the Vananchal Express were affected," an Eastern Railway release said here.

The accident occurred at 2:00 am when the New Coochbehar-Sealdah Uttarbanga Express came on the same track and rammed into the Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express which was leaving platform number four at Sainthia station.

Eastern Railway General Manager V N Tripathi did not rule out sabotage, which Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee hinted this morning when she said "we have doubts about the cause of the accident, the second in West Bengal in two months".

The General Manager said the train was in speed and "what caused this we will have to find out. The driver is a very good driver and we are also puzzled".

Asked whether sabotage could be behind the accident, he said, "Possibly. Nothing could be ruled out".

Though the railways were hesitant to come out with the reason for the accident, the second in two months in West Bengal after the Jyaneshwari Express disaster that claimed 148 lives, an apparent overshooting of the signal by the driver of the Uttarbanga Express could be the reason behind this.

Eastern Railway sources in Kolkata and Railway Board sources in Delhi said the Uttarbanga Express, which has a scheduled stop at Sainthia, was running at a high speed, overshot the signal and ploughed into the Vananchal Express.

The scheduled arrival and departure of Uttarbanga Express at Sainthia was 1.38 am and 1.39 am. It was not clear why the train, which was to halt at the station, was at a high speed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ollide-in-West-Bengal/articleshow/6185725.cms

 

[Oracle]

May God grant peace to the souls of those killed in this tragic accident. R.I.P fellow Indians.

 

[A.V.]

peace upon the dead and quick recovery to the injured
sad incident

also raises the question what about the anti - collision coaches introduction

 

[171K]

R.I.P & get well soon to the injured.

India needs to modernise the railway system asap.

 

[Pintu]

Rest in Peace for the departed souls who had to leave us without knowing what wrong they have done , Avi , yes , I am also pondering about the 'Anti-Collision' Device which had introduced earlier , but think that they were not probably installed in these locos.

Regards

 

[Pintu]

Hon'ble Railway Minister on the Train Accident:


Regards

 

[samarsingh]

R.i.p
............................................

 

[Illusive]

Indian rail accident - an accident which could have been averted

Indian rail crash leaves 63 dead

A speeding Indian express train ploughed into a stationary passenger train in West Bengal on Monday, killing at least 63 people and seriously injuring at least 100 others, less than two months after one of the country's worst rail disasters.

The back-to back collisions in the state of West Bengal have highlighted the risks of travelling on India's vast but decrepit railways network, which carries around 20m passengers a day and employs 1.4m people. In May, 145 people died when an express passenger train derailed on the route from Calcutta to Mumbai and was hit by a freight train.

The accidents are also putting heavy pressure on Mamata Banerjee, the railways minister, who has been accused of paying more attention to her political battle to dislodge the long-time Communist rulers of West Bengal - her home state - than on her job of running and upgrading the world's largest railway network.

Visiting the site of the disaster, which is around 200km from Calcutta, Ms Banerjee said she suspected the collision may have been the result of deliberate sabotage. "We have some doubt in our mind," she said. "We are searching all information."

However, railway officials also said the driver of the speeding train may have been responsible.

Indian Railways, which generated an operating surplus of around $5bn in 2007, tested a series of anti-collision systems for several years, but experts said the systems have only been installed on less than 1,700km of the railway networks 63,000km of track.

The failure to install the safety systems reflects a more chronic issue of under-investment, which has left the railway system, much of which was laid during British colonial rule, ill-equipped to meet the needs of the fast growing economy.

According to a recent Railway Ministry analysis, India's railway track network has expanded by 41 per cent since 1950-1951, while the systems freight and passenger traffic has increased by 12 and 11 times respectively.

According to the World Bank, many of the key lines – particularly those connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta – are currently operating at well over 100 per cent capacity, and carry 60 per cent of the country's freight though they account for just 16 per cent of the total rail network.

While Indian Railways has ambitious plans to double its busiest lines, progress has been extremely slow.

The company says its safety record has improved, with accidents dropping from 234 in the 2004-5 financial year, to 177 in 2008-2009, due in part to a $2.1bn investment from a special railways safety fund on the most urgent equipment needs.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/383b050c-934d-11df-bb9a-00144feab49a.html

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ng-of-A-grade-drivers/articleshow/6198470.cms

Rly focus on training of A-grade drivers
Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN, Jul 22, 2010, 01.43am IST

KOLKATA: Railway authorities, waking up after the Sainthia accident are working on ways to amend training of A-grade drivers, even though they are already top-notch in terms of hierarchy and efficiency.

After Monday's tragedy, Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai had said that

there have been five cases of sabotage since January. "The accidents are now occurring in mail and express trains. In many of these cases, there had been evidence of wilful interference," Sahai had said after the accident.

Sahai's contemplation has made the railways mull the training amendment for A-special and A-category drivers who operate on mail, superfast and express trains. Only 15% to 20% of all drivers in Indian Railways belong to these categories.

Eastern Railway officials said all 16 zonal railways are now being asked to send their feedback on the matter. A senior official said, "These drivers are already efficient. But the incidence of sabotage in trains driven by them has made everyone sit up. The drivers will be sensitised against possible means of sabotage."

There are suggestions to increase the frequency of the three-yearly refresher courses for the drivers. An official said,

"A key area of the refresher course is the psychoanalysis test and training. Increasing its recurrence seems to be the order of the day."

A railway driver usually begins his career as a diesel or electric loco assistant driver, then graduates as an assistant driver before becoming a shunter. After that, he can be promoted as a driver on passenger trains and finally on express trains. It takes more than 10 years for an assistant driver to work up the ranks to become a driver of a Rajdhani or a Shatabdi.

Training for a driver's position begins with preliminary theoretical classes followed by six weeks of "road learning" (also known as "learning road" or L R training) for hands-on experience with trains, tracks and signals. L R for most drivers tends to be for a particular route handled regularly. Among the suggestions being worked out is an intensified L R with a special eye on vulnerable stretches. Currently, if a driver has not operated on a section for over three months, he gets L R trips.

"The refresher course should be made an annual affair and the psychoanalysis test reworked," P K Chatterjee, former chief operations manager, Eastern Railway, said. The psychoanalysis test deals with building memory power, following direction, depth perception, number matching, perceptual speed and mechanical comprehension. "All these are important for sharpening the driver's alertness. So, it makes sense to increase frequency of the tests," said an official. The simulator training, currently a one-time measure, thanks to scarcity of training simulators, may now become a regular refresher training. Included in it will be medical tests and vision checks.

 

[Ray]

Bolting the stable doors after the horse have fled.

 

[Pintu]

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=335696&catid=42

Drivers' viscera samples handed over

23 July 2010

Statesman News Service
SAINTHIA, 23 JULY: Four days after the Sainthia rail mishap, the viscera samples of the deceased Down Uttar Banga Express driver and his assistant and the guard of the ill-fated Down Vananchal Express were collected from the Suri district hospital by the police and handed over to the GRP today. The samples would be sent to Hyderabad for forensic tests.
The drivers ~ Madhab Chandra Dey and NK Mondal and the guard of the other train Amritangshu Mukherjee had died on spot when the Down Uttar Banga Express had barged into the stationary Vananchal Express at platform No 4 at Sainthia on Monday. Postmortem of the bodies were done along with the passengers at Suri hospital by two autopsy surgeons from National Medical College, Kolkata and one from Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.
The viscera samples were collected from the hospital by IC, Suri, Mr Swapan Banerjee. Asked about the delay in collecting the samples, SP, Birbhum, Mr Humayun Kabir said: "We had to follow certain procedures which tokk sometime. The samples were taken to Rampurhat Sub Divisional Court for necessary clearance and then handed over to GRP."
The police required a specific complaint for the purpose and things could only proceed when one of the Vananchal Express passengers, Mr Danish Wasi registered a complaint under sections 337 & 338 (causing hurt, grievous injury by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 427 (Mischief causing damage), 304 [A] (Causing death by negligence) of the IPC. In a veiled reference to the demand for Miss Mamata Banerjee's resignation following repeated train disasters, the Union minister of state for health Mr Dinesh Trivedi today said at a Confederation of Indian Industries meeting in Kolkata that the railway minister can't be held answerable for the day to day functioning of the railways.

Defamation suit

KOLKATA, 23 JULY : The Trinamul Congress will file a defamation case against the editor, printer and publisher of the CPI-M's party organ People's Democracy for publishing in its editorial a derogatory remark against the Trinamul Congress. Mr Mukul Roy, Trinamul Congress general secretary, said today, "We will file a defamation case of Rs one crore against the CPI-M's party organ."It is stated that one Mr Dinakaran from Coimbatore wrote that from now on TMC should be termed as Train Mishap Congress. SNS

 

[pmaitra]

Sainthia Train Crash

Unloading illegal cargo at Sainthia caused tragedy?
[Times of India, Jul 23, 2010]

SAINTHIA: Petty corruption can at times turn deadly in a system that functions on precision. The Sainthia railway tragedy exposes a long prevalent practice at smaller railway stations where trains run on a razor's edge, loading and unloading illegal cargo everyday.

That the Vananchal Express overstayed at Sainthia despite the green signal on the fateful day was no exception. Train drivers routinely breach such rules despite knowing the next arrival is minutes away. At Sainthia, for instance, where there is a train every four minutes, drivers take the deadly gamble because the volume of parcels they take on and unload far exceeds the booked amount. And it takes longer than the specified time for coolies to finish their job.

An accident, therefore, was waiting to happen and around 2am on Monday, it did, killing 63 people. The prescribed five minutes — the scheduled halt for Vananchal Express at Sainthia — is enough for railway staff to unload the parcels, say sources. On the night of the accident, there were supposed to be 16 sacks of chilli, but far more sacks were unloaded. Did the train overstay by crucial six minutes for this? If yes, the Vananchal drivers were taking a deadly risk knowing that another train was steaming in.

A railway staff spilled the beans on Thursday, saying that adhering to the safety mechanism is time consuming and "not fit for small stations where there's a single track for mail and express trains".

"Platforms 2 and 3 are used by Up trains or those taking the Andal route. Platform 5 is a buffer zone where the track ends within metres, usually called the vacant loop. Platform 4 is kept free for mail and express trains. The pressure on this track is huge. Trains come every three or four minutes. Following the safety rules is not feasible always because it would lead to long delays. If we had another track, we could have diverted Uttar Banga and averted the disaster."

The station authorities are aware of this risk-laden business, but they wink at it in collusion with the guard, drivers, booking clerks and the GRP.