Railway accidents

Citation

(2005), "Railway accidents", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2005.07314bac.005

Railway accidents

16 June 2004Raigad District, Maharashtra State, India

At least 18 people died when a train derailed during heavy monsoon rains in western India, officials say. The passenger train came off the tracks as it crossed a river near the Konkan coast in western Maharashtra state at around 0610, local time, today. Many people are feared trapped in carriages hanging from the bridge in Raigad district, while the engine fell into the river, correspondents say. The train is said to have been travelling from Mangalore to Bombay. Reports said the derailment, between Veer and Karanjadi, 200km to the south of Bombay, was caused by boulders which had fallen onto the tracks in the rains. The first 11 coaches, including the engine, had gone off the rails, a statement on the Konkan Railway website said. At least 40 passengers were injured in the accident involving the Matsyagandha Express train. They have been taken to a hospital in Mahad, 12 miles from the accident site. Rescue and medical teams were on the scene trying to help trapped passengers. “Many people are feared trapped inside the two coaches hanging from the bridge,” a senior railway official said. But the rains and the hilly terrain were hindering rescue operations. “It is very difficult to approach the accident site. The only approach is through a winding road over the hills,” a doctor at the hospital said. India’s Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said the route on which the accident happened was prone to landslides.

16 June 2004. At least 20 people have been killed and over 100 injured after a train bound for Mumbai derailed while crossing a bridge. Ten coaches and the engine of the Matsyagandha Express jumped the rails on the western Konkan coast today after the engine crashed into large boulders that had rolled down from the mountainside due to heavy monsoon rains lashing the area. Officials said rescue workers struggled to remove bodies from three coaches that hung from the bridge after the accident that happened in pouring rain about 160km south of Mumbai. Railway engineers tried to remove the damaged coaches from the tracks to make way for other trains, which were either diverted or cancelled. Officials said the train was headed for Mumbai from the southern coastal city of Mangalore.

17 June 2004. The Indian Railways Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, said today that yesterday’s train derailment which killed at least 20 people was a natural disaster. Mr Yadav earlier said that any official found guilty of negligence would be punished. However, he now says that the crash occurred because of a landslide caused by the wet weather of the monsoon. The passenger train came off the tracks as it crossed a river near the Konkan coast in western Maharashtra. “There is no official who is responsible for this tragedy, it is a natural calamity,” Mr Yadav said. “I have seen the site of the accident, and there was a landslide in which earth and boulders covered the tracks. The driver was forced to brake hard.” My Yadav said that an investigation into the accident would still be carried out by the commissioner of railway safety. He said that throughout the monsoon season, a pilot engine would run in front of every passenger train on the Konkan Railway to provide clearance and early warnings of possible landslides. Authorities in Maharashtra said the track had now been cleared, although normal services are yet to be restored. The first 11 coaches of the train went off the rails, and local people helped passengers trapped in carriages. Around 115 people were injured, some seriously. Officials said the rains and hilly terrain hindered rescue operations at the site, because the only approach was through a winding road over the hills. Mr Yadav promised compensation for the victims’ families and said compensation of 100,000 rupees ($2,200) would be paid to the family of each person killed.

22 July 2004Pamukova area, Turkey

A packed express train travelling from Istanbul to Ankara derailed today, killing 36 people in one of Turkey’s worst ever rail disasters. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan revised an earlier death toll of 139 given by a crisis centre and the Health Ministry. “The information we have received from hospitals is that around 36 people were killed,” Erdogan told reporters at the scene of the disaster. He said 79 people were injured. Officials suspect the accident was caused by a mechanical fault, and some observers blamed Turkey’s under-funded, decrepit rail system. Transport officials said one of the rear wagons may have derailed first, pulling others off the line. “Four wagons were derailed and fell on their sides,” Mehmet Ayci of the state railways agency told Reuters. “We don’t believe speed was the cause, because the train was travelling slower, between 75-80km per hour, in this area.” The head of the crisis centre, Muammer Turker, told reporters the train was carrying 234 passengers and nine crew. The train derailed near the town of Pamukova in north-western Turkey at around 1945 hrs, almost two hours after leaving Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial hub and biggest city. Officials have not ruled out human error, but dismissed foul play. Parliamentary speaker Bulent Arinc said speculation about sabotage was “a fantasy.”

23 July 2004. Search and rescue efforts, launched after a high-speed train derailed in Pamukova town of north-western Sakarya province, en route from Istanbul to Ankara overnight, ended today. Rescue workers cleared away debris and did not find any other person left under the debris. Around 300 railway workers repaired the rail lines in six hours. Turkish Prime Ministry Crisis Management Bureau said earlier today that 36 people died and 81 others were injured in the crash.

26 July 2004Aydin, Turkey

A passenger train in Aydin, Turkey, yesterday slammed into a minibus, killing 15 people, five of them children, officials told said. Six other people are reported injured. The train was travelling from Izmir to Denizli in western Turkey when the driver of the minibus ignored signals warning of the advancing train and attempted to cross the tracks, officials said. The minibus – carrying 19 passengers returning from a wedding party – was rushing to cross the track before the barriers came down, a railroad official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The minibus was dragged about 875 metres along the tracks.