Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The death toll in Sunday’s train accident near Kantakapalli in Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh has gone up to 14 and the number of injured to 38, according to the officials who apprised Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of the tragedy, when he met the victims at the hospital in Vizianagaram on Monday.
Railway officials, however, put the toll at 13 and injured at 30 as of Monday evening. The rail track was restored within a span of 20 hours, allowing for the resumption of train services. The first train to pass on the down line was a goods train, at 2:23 p.m. on Monday and the first train on the up line was Train No. 18463 Bhubaneswar-KSR Bengaluru Prashanti Express, which was admitted at 2:36 p.m.
The accident occurred when the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train (No. 08504) hit the Visakhapatnam-Palasa passenger train (No. 08532) from behind between Kantakapalli and Alamanda railway stations around 7 p.m. on Sunday.
A preliminary railway probe into the accident has held the driver and the assistant driver of Rayagada Passenger train responsible for the collision as it passed two defective auto signals violating norms. Both crew members were killed in the accident.
Signed by seven experts, the preliminary report said they carefully examined the accident site, available evidence, statements of officials concerned, data logger report and the speedometer chart. It concluded that the Rayagada passenger train (08504) hit the Visakhapatnam Palasa passenger train (08532) from the rear due to the crew of the former passing two defective auto signals. “Hence, LP (loco pilot), S M S Rao, ALP (Assistant Loco Pilot) of Train no 08504 (Rayagada Passenger train) held responsible,” the report said.
The Divisional Railway Manager DRM Saurabh Prasad, who has been monitoring the relief and rescue operations at the accident spot on Monday morning, said the Palasa passenger was going on the middle line and is said to have slow down and in the meantime, the Rayagada passenger overshot the signal and hit the Palasa passenger from behind. Three coaches of the Palasa passenger and the locomotive and two coaches of the Rayagada passenger were badly damaged and capsized and thrown beside the track.
The survivors of the Vizianagaram train accident recalled experiencing sudden jerks as the train they were travelling applied its brakes several times before the collision. Satyanarayana, one of the survivors, said the passengers felt a few jerks followed by a huge sound and then everything came to a halt. “We boarded the train at Vizag. Some were going till Bobbili. Suddenly brakes were applied. The train jerked thrice. People began to panic after this,” he said.
The removal of the mangled coaches of the trains following the collision turned a Herculean task for rescue teams, and heavy duty cranes were deployed for the purpose. The lack of power supply due to snapping of power lines, the darkness, and the accident spot being a couple of kilometres away from the main road, added to the woes of the workers engaged in the relief operations.
“The records of the data logger, speed recorder and other records have been seized. A full-fledged inquiry is being conducted to find out the exact cause of the accident,” the DRM said. “The KAVACH system is not available on both the trains,” the DRM said in response to a query.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) and other officials reached the spot.
“In the past, a train used to be given the green signal, when the train ahead of it crossed the station ahead. Now, a train is being given the green signal barely after the one ahead crosses 500 metres. The speed in the Section has also been increased from 90 km/hr to 120 km/hr, and all these factors could have played a part in the accident,” the railway sources said.
“As it was a Sunday, the two trains were less crowded. Had it been a weekday, there would be more employees and students, and the toll could have been much higher,” they said. Expressing doubts over the theory that the loco pilot had jumped the signal, they said it could be a fault in the signalling system.
The NDRF and A.P. SDRF teams, railway and police personnel were involved in the relief operations. The NDRF team will conduct a thorough, final search for any bodies trapped in the mangled coaches, he said. East Coast Railway General Manager Manoj Sharma and other senior officials monitored the track restoration operations.
Twenty of the injured were undergoing treatment at Alamanda PHC, 15 at Vizianagaram Government Hospital, two at Medicover in Visakhapatnam and one at KGH in Visakhapatnam. The Andhra chief minister visited the patients and inquired about their treatment at the Visakhapatnam hospitals.
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