52 accidents in 5 mths, Rlys blame human error

However, instead of self-introspection, the meeting passed the buck saying that “40 per cent of the accidents were avoidable as they were caused by human error.” Earlier, such accidents have seen railway ministers lose their jobs. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu called the meeting, where the general managers of all 17 zones were present.

According to reports, this year nearly 190 people lost their lives in train accidents due to <g data-gr-id="46">derailment</g>, with <g data-gr-id="47">hundreds</g> others injured, and <g data-gr-id="48">thousands</g> others displaced due to disrupted services and diverted trains. Train accidents in 2014-2015 rose to 135 from the number being 118 in 2013-2014. In the last 5 months, 52 accidents reportedly took place between April 1 and September 13, 2015, out of which maximum accidents took place due to derailments accounting to 27, followed by unmanned level crossings (UMLC) which caused 19 accidents, and 3 each caused by Manned Level Crossing (MLC) and for miscellaneous reasons.

According to the Railway Ministry, other factors responsible for such accidents were collision and fire, but derailment has topped the list since 2005.

Speaking to media, Railway Board Chairman A K Mittal  said, “In fact 97 employees have been terminated from service, as they were found to be responsible for some of these accidents.” Though he blamed the existing systems for being old and agreed that some of the accidents could have also occurred due to “system failure, human error or maintenance issues”. Mittal said the minister insisted on “reviewing all these issues which caused accidents and the need to increase funds as well”. 

Prabhu, reports said, emphasised on “the need to conduct strong safety audits at all levels on regular intervals and concrete action should be taken on those reports in a <g data-gr-id="80">time bound</g> manner”.

 Mittal said the Railway Ministry had asked the Finance Ministry for a ‘Special Safety Fund’ amounting to nearly one lakh crore. “It is still in <g data-gr-id="42">process</g> and the proposal is being worked on by us,” he added. He emphasised this fund was especially focused on railway safety improvement which was the Railway Ministry’s “top priority and concern”.

The chairman said Prabhu insisted on a ‘Zero Accident Mission’. “Our aim is that accidents should be minimised to zero, this will obviously not happen in a day’s time, but our goal is to make this number zero,” said Mittal.

With a focus to improve safety standards, the Railway Ministry, in a statement, said “measures to prevent derailments include upgradation of track structure, mechanised maintenance of track with latest track machines and improved welding technology”. As on April 1, 2015, there were approximately 29,487 level crossings (LC) out of which 19047 (64.6%) were manned and 10,440 (35.4%) unmanned. 

The statement said, “To avoid UMLC accidents, it has been decided to progressively eliminate all UMLC by closing unmanned crossings having NIL/negligible Train Vehicle Units (TVUs),  merger of UMLC with nearby unmanned/manned gates or road under bridge or road over bridge or subway by construction of diversion road, provision of subways/road under bridges.”