Mathura train accident, the truth..?

Anita M.

Two ridiculous reports, one aired on a National News Channel and one on a news Website:

1. Not sure which channel, they said that the 'criminal' who was being taken to a jail pulled the chain and 'that' caused the accident. Does this mean that train pulling requires prior knowledge of the place? How stupid of the channel?

2. "I was in Goa Express and the driver of the train was not driving properly from the very beginning. He was constantly changing track and then he rammed the train with another stationary train that was already positioned on the tracks,’ said Junaid, a passenger. (REPORT from http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/63016.htm)

The news website and the passenger, both were equally ignorant about the way trains change tracks.

Anyway, the ABS (Automatic Blocking System) would signal the driver behind about this block and therefore, this is likely to be a driver error or signal failure. Can anyone brief as in what are the other possibilities and now that the news channels are not covering this, what is the outcome of this probe? What did really happen?

*jyoti*

There are a lot of theories, the two main ones (why the first train stopped & why the other train didn't) are generally stated quite differently from what you've posted. The news channels have covered it a lot, and the "outcome of the probe" is fairly premature as the accident itself has only just happened.

Of course, no one on IM can tell you the "truth" of what happened.

Some of the news & "theories" can be found doing a simple google search.

http://www.google.co.in/search?q=mathura+train+goa+exp ress+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

bsprasad

The first train stopped because, two cops accompanying a criminal dozed off and suddenly found him running towards the other compartment. The cops pulled the chain to stop the train.

The second train should'nt have come in the same track.

Even if its in the same track. The signals would have been definitely RED....Driver has ignored it..

Its not only Mechanical , but also human failure which caused this.

I was under impression after the interview by Lalu Prasad Yadav -(EX railways minister) 2 years ago that all the trains are equipped with wireless and couple of them are carried by drivers and guards. (Probably I should send a petition under RTI to check if both the trains were equipped with wireless sets)

If the wireless sets were available, I hope the driver or the guard informing the authorities about the train stopping midway would have been life saving, Right...?

In India, There is no value for human life...?

Matthew Morris

From the papers I've read in India, I don't think much of the levels of journalism...almost as bad as the daily mail/sun.

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Prashant.M

True and the news channels are even worse. They get quite worked up and hysterical, all for eyeballs of course.

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rsk11584

didnt the train driver see the stopped train and applied emergency brakes, it is not road that two cars are speeding at distance of 5 metres and if one brakes suddenly the other would ram it, the behind train would have seen the train stopped in front, wont it??

Digital Drifter

Yep. At least to make up for general crappiness, they at least put some eye candy. The clowns here at mostly on the take.

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