India- Bihar train "crash"

[jopsuk]

India's railways have a poor safety record, but this is quite an incredible incident- especially the reaction to it

At least 35 Hindu pilgrims were killed and several were injured when an express train ploughed into them at a remote railway station in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

The accident happened at around 9am on Monday when a large group of pilgrims got off a local train at a village railway station on the northern banks of the river Ganges and, oblivious of a fast train heading to the state capital Patna, they began crossing the railway track on their way to a Shiva temple.

The Patna-bound train ploughed through the saffron-robed pilgrims, mostly young men known as kanwariyas, killing several before it ground to a halt.

The death toll is expected to rise.

Enraged pilgrims along with local villagers attacked the express train, injuring the train driver, setting ablaze two coaches, and taking hostage officials of the East Central Railway.

The train was not scheduled to stop at the Dhamara village railway station where the pilgrims had alighted from another passenger train.

A railway spokesperson said on national TV that officials had to seek police help to get to the accident site following the riots.

"Some angry people attacked the train driver and seriously injured him," a police official said. They beat him up mercilessly. Some railway officials are also being held hostage."

Every year in July and August, millions of young men set off on foot in northern India to pay homage to the Hindu god Shiva and bring back holy Ganges water to their hometowns and villages.

Monday morning's train accident is one of the worst involving kanwariyas

 

[Monty]

Almost unbelievable, and to think it could have easily been prevented if people simply stop, looked and listened. A sad event indeed but to attack the driver and hold other members of staff hostage because of something outside of their control is beggars belief.

 

[Zoidberg]

Monday morning's train accident is one of the worst involving kanwariyas

... suggesting that there have been others. I wonder why. Google isn't helping.

 

[talltim]

This article suggests that the train went though a red, although it contradicts pretty much every other article
http://news.sky.com/story/1130368/india-express-train-kills-dozens-of-pilgrims

 

[Zoidberg]

This article suggests that the train went though a red, although it contradicts pretty much every other article
http://news.sky.com/story/1130368/india-express-train-kills-dozens-of-pilgrims

Yes, the article opens with ...

A speeding train ploughed through a red signal and hit a group of pilgrims crossing the tracks, killing at least 35, Indian authorities have said.

But later in the article it says ...

Railways spokesman Amitabh Prabhakar said that the pilgrims were killed "by an express train while they were crossing the tracks despite the red signal".

and

However, the chairman of the national railway board, Arunendra Kumar, who is based in New Delhi, said that the Rajya Rani Express had been given permission to pass.

He said: "The accident occurred because some people left the platform of the station and came on the tracks."

So, to whom was being shown the red signal? The train driver or the pedestrians (i.e. crossing despite the red signal)? And in saying that I do not know if there is a controlled crossing there, it's just that the second mention of a red signal in the article seems ambiguous.

 

[yorkie]

Many journalists appear to be barely literate and lack intelligence. I doubt Sky's (or their agents) are any exception to that.

I think that they mis-interpreted this:

Railways spokesman Amitabh Prabhakar said that the pilgrims were killed "by an express train while they were crossing the tracks despite the red signal".

which is surely saying that the idiotic pilgrims were crossing the tracks despite a red signal.

If this sort of reaction is not uncommon, then perhaps there should be a new rule saying the train should not stop within easy walking distance of the incident, in case of future attacks.

Also it sounds like armed police should attend such incidents.

 

[talltim]

There appears to be no proper crossing at the station
http://binged.it/1dlLHwv
https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=Dha...t&hnear=Dhamhara,+Khagaria,+Bihar,+India&z=18

 

[Eng274]

Read about this on BBC news this morning, pretty shocking reaction to hound the driver and give him a doing - what could he have done if there were people on the line that shouldn't have been there?

There is conflicting information though, the station involved was 'rural' yet there was apparently a signal system to permit pedestrians to cross (but, im assuming, no physical barrier). A SPAD by the express train (if the red signal talked about was for the train) might explain the reaction, but how would ordinary punters and pilgrims know it was a SPAD if the signal was well before the crossing?

A brief search on YouTube highlights a lot of videos of people in India coming within a bawhair of being a one-under, and one particularly horrific OHLE death. A serious safety culture/policing/prevention problem clearly. The BBC report states 15,000 people are killed each year due to unlawful trespassing, that pales the UK's figures into insignificance, even taking into account that there are 6.5 times more passenger journeys per year than the Uk.

It also states 1220 deaths on the Indian railway last year, but it does not detail if that is passengers or part of the 15,000 trespass related.

 

[WatcherZero]

Come on this a country where they have to install hanging chains that scrape the top of the carriages to stop people riding them.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Railways in the Indian diaspora are not viewed by the rural populations there in the same manner as we accept as normal in Western Europe....nor do we in Western Europe accept bovine species wandering on main roads as a normal fact of life.

 

[khib70]

Railways in the Indian diaspora are not viewed by the rural populations there in the same manner as we accept as normal in Western Europe....nor do we in Western Europe accept bovine species wandering on main roads as a normal fact of life.

White van men??

 

[185]

"The accident took place when pilgrims were trying to cross the railway track after alighting from a local train," he said.A top railway official Arunendra Kumar said the express train was not supposed to halt at Dhamara Ghat and had been given clearance to pass through the station. However, some pilgrims waited on the tracks thinking they could stop the train, he said."
http://www.indiatimes.com/news/indi...eeding-train-runs-over-35-pilgrims-96146.html

Another not-bothering-to-look-before-you-cross incident.
Similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelldefels_rail_accident - An accident where non-Spanish passengers took a shortcut and crossed the tracks whilst the locals used to subway underneath.