Railway accidents

Citation

(2003), "Railway accidents", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2003.07312cac.004

Railway accidents

Railway accidents

12 May 2002 – Lucknow area, Uttar Pradesh, India

At least seven people have been killed and 60 injured after 13 coaches of a passenger train derailed near a village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a senior railway official says. The train was travelling from New Delhi to Patna in eastern Bihar state. "Thirteen of the 24 coaches of the train derailed early morning. The injured have been taken to nearby hospitals," Kamlesh Gupta, divisional railway manager, said. Gupta said a relief train with doctors and rescue workers had been sent to the site from Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, which is 125 miles from the accident site.

12 May 2002 – At least 12 persons were killed and over 49 injured when Patna-bound Shramjeevi Express derailed near Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh early today and sabotage is not ruled out. Railway board chairman I.I.M.S. Rana said there were several indicators that firmly pointed to sabotage. A total of 12 coaches and the engine of Shramjeevi Express, which started from New Delhi yesterday, went off the tracks between Kheta Sarai and Mehrawa stations near Jaunpur on the Lucknow-Varanasi section of the Northern Railway at 0400 hrs, railway sources said here. Six of the dead, four men and two women, have been identified so far. At least 100 passengers were injured in the derailment and admitted to different hospitals in Jaunpur and Kheta Sarai, they said, adding the condition of four of them was critical. The accident took place when most of the passengers were asleep and the train was passing over a small bridge on a narrow dry canal, the sources said. Stranded passengers have been sent to Patna by two special trains, they said. Railway minister Nitish Kumar, accompanied by chairman of the Railway board and other senior officials visited the accident site. Mr Kumar told reporters in Patna that several fish plates were removed from the tracks. He, however, hastened to add some defect in rail tracks or a weak bridge could also have caused the derailment. The death toll could rise further, authorities in Jaunpur said. While 11 coaches of the train managed to cross the bridge, 13 other coaches jumped off the tracks and rolled over, suffering considerable damage, the report said. A team of doctors from Varanasi, Azamgarh, Jaunpur and other neighbouring districts attended to the injured. Nitish Kumar said a statutory inquiry into the derailment had been ordered. Northern Railway spokesman Devender P. Sandhu said in New Delhi that "all circumstances at the site of the derailment indicate the possibility of sabotage. Fish plates have been found lying in such a condition near the track which does not indicate that it was an accident," he said, adding "preliminary probe by senior railway officials has found no problem with the track or the locomotive. All parameters of the track were measured and it was found that there was no problem with it," Mr Sandhu added. The Railway minister has announced that the next of kin of each of those killed would be immediately paid Rs1 lakh as ex-gratia while the Railway Claims Tribunal would pay another three lakh as compensation after verification. Each of the seriously injured would get an ex-gratia of Rs25,000 while those with minor injuries would get Rs5000, he said. Meanwhile four express trains have been diverted and three passenger trains terminated to clear rail traffic due to the derailment of the Shramjeevi express, a report from Delhi said.

25 May 2002 – Tenga area, Mozambique

At least 117 people have been killed and 400 hurt in a train crash in Mozambique, the country's transport minister says. One passenger who survived the disaster said a derailment occurred after engineers separated goods wagons from passenger wagons to enable the train to scale a steep hill. Radio Mozambique quoted police and fire department sources as saying the train had "technical problems" with its brakes. The crash happened this morning near the town of Tenga in Maputo province, 25 miles from the Mozambique capital, Maputo, Transport and Communications Minister Tomas Salomao said. "There are at least 117 dead," Salomao said. "There are many in a serious condition and the death toll could climb." Reporters saw 106 corpses at the main mortuary in Maputo but officials said other bodies were still on their way there. Hospital authorities said 22 people were admitted in a serious condition to the intensive care unit while a further 148 were admitted to wards but were out of immediate danger. Ambulances and private cars ferried the injured to hospital and health officials said those hurt were "above 400". Details of the crash were still scant. One man who escaped unhurt from the train said it was going over a steep hill when it appeared to lose power. Engineers separated the goods wagons, which were to the front, from the passenger wagons at the back. However, once that was done, the goods wagons started rolling back, gathering speed, and rammed into the already retreating passenger wagons, causing a derailment, said the man, who did not wish to be identified and gave no further details. Salomao said he had not been briefed on the exact cause of the crash, but investigators had arrived at the scene. The train was travelling on the Maputo-Ressano Gracia railway linking Mozambique with the south. President Joaquim Chissano cancelled meetings in his home village of Malaice in southern Mozambique on hearing the news and was returning to the capital, a senior minister said. Health officials issued an urgent appeal for blood. Yacoob Omar, a director at the Maputo hospital, also said the hospital had appealed to doctors and health workers in the private sector to head to hospitals and clinics near them to help treat the injured.

26 May 2002 – Choking cement dust buried dozens of passengers alive in a horror train crash in Mozambique in which at least 205 people died yesterday. Three coaches smashed to scrap metal from the train carrying passengers and a cargo of cement from the south, lay at the rail-side in the village of Tenga, 25 miles from the Mozambican capital Maputo. Villagers worked with bare hands to break windows to pull out the injured or retrieve the dead. Cement dust made the work harder and constant coughing could be heard. Bodies littered the crash site – thrown out of the train on impact or crushed under seats, under the weight of the cement dust or other goods, witnesses said. Doctors in Maputo's main hospital said at least 205 people were killed and 22 were in intensive care. The doctors said another 169 passengers were in the high dependence unit, which caters for people who are critical but out of immediate danger. One survivor said the train was going over a steep hill when it appeared to lose power. He said engineers separated the passenger coaches from the freight wagons, which then rolled back into the carriages. But another passenger said it was the passenger coaches that crashed into the wagons. Radio Mozambique quoted police and fire department sources as saying the train had "technical problems" with its brakes. "We have now received 205 bodies," Dr Yacoob Omar, a director at Maputo's main hospital, said. Health officials put the number of injured at more than 400. In the aftermath of the collision, the mangled wrecks of three passenger wagons lay on their side. Many passengers inside were entombed alive in cement dust, which also coated the living, getting into the eyes, noses and ears of rescuers and survivors. Transport and Communications Minister Tomas Salomao said work to clear the railway line, the main link between Mozambique and the south, would continue overnight so that it could be reopened to traffic today. "We have a lot of cargo waiting to go to the south, and a lot of cargo waiting to come into Mozambique," he said.

26 May 2002 – The worst rail disaster in Mozambique's history occurred after a railroad worker unsuccessfully used four large stones to keep a packed passenger train from sliding down a hill, a railway official said today. Meanwhile, funerals began for some of the 196 people killed in the crash, and health officials pleaded for blood donations for the 400 others who were injured. The crash of a train carrying passengers and freight from the south happened about 0500 hrs, yesterday near the town of Moamba, about 40 miles north of the capital, Maputo. The train developed a mechanical fault as it descended a hill, so the driver disconnected the passenger section, at the back of the train, and drove the front section carrying freight to the nearby Tenga station, railway officials said. The driver had wedged four large stones under the wheels of the passenger train to keep it from sliding down the hill, but the stones apparently came loose and the train barrelled down the tracks into the freight train, said Antonio Libombo, an official with the Mozambican Railway Company. "An investigation is still under way," Transport Minister Tomas Salomao said. "But at first glance, the crash was caused by a human error." Rescue workers toiled throughout yesterday to free many victims who were trapped in the wreckage. By today, all the bodies had been removed and the wreckage was cleared, Salomao told Radio Mozambique. Regular train service resumed and three trains had passed through the area by this afternoon. The railroad has also promised financial assistance to the families of those killed.

27 May 2002 – Mozambique established a commission of inquiry today to investigate what caused a devastating train crash, as mourning relatives buried dozens of victims from the worst rail disaster in the country's history. The crash killed about 200 people and left hundreds of others injured. Transport Minister Tomas Salomao said a government commission had been established to probe the cause of the crash.

4 June 2002 – Chandi, Uttar Pradesh, India

At least 30 people have been killed and 25 injured after a train ploughed into a bus at a level crossing in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, an official said. Anil Kumar, principal interior secretary, said today the accident happened at an unmanned crossing in Chandi village, about 170 km north-west of the state capital, Lucknow. The 5301 express passenger train was going to Kasgung village from the industrial town of Kanpur. "As the train rammed into the bus, it was smashed to pieces and thrown in a neighbouring canal," Kumar said.

18 June 2002 – Kitzsteinhorn Mountain, Austria

A total of 16 ski resort workers and inspectors have gone on trial charged with responsibility for a fire on a tunnel-bound ski train which killed 155 people. A faulty electric heater triggered the inferno in a steep two-mile-long tunnel leading up to a glacier on the Kitzsteinhorn mountain above the resort of Kaprun on 11 November, 2000. Only 12 people survived the blaze, managing to break open a window and escape as the fire ripped through the two packed carriages and brought the funicular train to a halt. The scores of remaining victims were unable to flee the blaze as the doors would not open. The dead included Germans, Japanese, Americans and Austrians. The 16 defendants are employees of the ski train operator, Gletscherbahnen Kaprun, its suppliers and transport ministry officials in charge of inspecting the train and tunnel equipment. All 16 have pleaded not guilty to various charges of "negligent causing of a blaze" and "negligent causing of danger to the public", which carry a maximum sentence of five years in jail. The case was moved from Salzburg's district court to a larger building to handle crowds of relatives, lawyers and journalists. It is scheduled to last through late September. The prosecution case will centre on who was responsible for installing and servicing the non-regulation heater in the driver's cabin which sparked the blaze by leaking oil. It will also probe why the train's doors could not be opened from inside, why there were no fire protection measures in either the train or the tunnel, and why the door from the tunnel to the summit station did not close. Three people suffocated at the ski train's terminus after poisonous gases seeped through from the tunnel.

25 June 2002 – Central Tanzania

At least 200 people were killed yesterday, when a passenger train and a freight train collided in central Tanzania, hospital officials said. At least 200 people are dead but there could be more, John Mtimbwa, the regional medical officer in the Tanzanian administrative capital Dodoma, said. Witnesses said hundreds more were injured when the trains collided between Igandu and Msagali, about 100 km south-east of Dodoma and 400 km west of Dar es Salaam. About 800 people are badly injured. Isaac Mwakajila, assistant director-general of Tanzanian Railway Corporation, said the train was climbing a steep hill when it experienced mechanical problems and rolled backwards on the tracks towards an approaching freight train. The crash occurred at about 0830 hrs. The train went off the railway tracks backwards and smashed into another train behind it going in the same direction. It had 22 cabins and 21 of them fell off the rail tracks. The train was carrying about 1,000 passengers. The exact number of dead is not certain as it is very difficult to get figures from the scene. One survivor, John Maganga, said the train, which was travelling from Dar es Salaam to the north-western town of Kigoma, was moving very fast as it rolled backwards. The driver left the engine and ran into the cabins telling people to close the windows and shouting that the train was out of control. Maganga and several other survivors were taken by train to Dodoma from the crash scene and were in hospital there. An aircraft, carrying doctors, has left Dar es Salaam for Dodoma, to help in treating the injured.

25 June 2002 – Tanzanian Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye has announced two days of national mourning following the train accident that killed at least 200 people, local radio reported today. President Benjamin Mkapa, accompanied by local officials, visited the regional hospitals where the injured were given emergency treatment.

26 June 2002 – A crane pulled apart the mangled wreckage of steel railroad carriages in Tanzania today as the death toll rose. "We have received 174 bodies in total and I believe we will get more," Health Minister Anna Abdalla said. "We know there will be more than 200 dead." The crane crew painstakingly lifted battered carriages, moving slowly in case survivors were inside. But rescuers found only the dead, tangled in the concertinaed carriages or thrown clear, their corpses and body parts decomposing in the sun. Rescuers saved those who could be removed within the first hours after the collision. Officials said they believe no one left on the train, when evening fell, survived the night.

27 June 2002 – A press report, dated today, states: Tanzanian officials have put at 281 the official death toll of the train crash near the administrative capital Dodoma earlier this week, as rescue efforts at the site came to an end. Rescue workers pulled the last bodies from two mangled coaches overnight. Officials said that 208 bodies had been identified by relatives, and that the 73 unidentified victims would be buried today.

20 July 2002 – Sicily

A passenger train derailed and crashed into an abandoned house in north-eastern Sicily, today, killing at least eight people and injuring about 30 others, police said. The engine was still hanging over a bridge as firefighters and police scrambled to reach the wreckage. Rescuers used ladders to reach the engine and residents joined in the hunt for passengers feared trapped inside. The cause of the crash and details of what happened were not immediately clear. Several carriages also jumped the track. The crash occurred as the train, from Palermo, was nearing the Rometta Marea station, about 20 miles from Messina. The area is far from major roads, and its location delayed the rescue effort. About 190 passengers were on board. Survivors were taken to a hospital in Messina. One of the engineers was among the dead, while another was pulled from the wreckage with serious injuries, news reports said. The transport ministry ordered an investigation into the accident.

21 July 2002 – Two investigations are under way after at least eight people were killed and dozens were injured in a train crash near the Sicilian city of Messina. The authorities have offered conflicting accounts of the accident, but it appears that the Venice-bound train, carrying nearly 200 passengers, derailed and then hit a bridge as it approached a station. Some of the train's seven carriages and the locomotive then tumbled into a ditch. Rescue workers, army officers and police laboured at the scene throughout the night, trying to free people who were trapped in the wreckage of the train. The incident occurred at about 1900, local time (1700 UTC), July 20, near the Rometta Marea station. The injured were taken to Palermo and Messina for treatment. One of the drivers was among the dead, the other seven were passengers. Others, including the train's second driver, suffered serious injuries. The train, an overnight express travelling from Palermo to Venice, was due to arrive at its destination at around 0800 UTC, 21 July. It is not yet known what caused the train to come off the rails, but two official inquiries have already been launched, one by the train company and one by Sicilian magistrates.

12 August 2002 – Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, UK

Railtrack is to pay up to £12 million in compensation to victims of the Potters Bar rail crash. The company has stressed the pay-out, which is likely to mean £1 million for each of the seven victims' families, is not an admission of liability. The money will come from the collapsed network operator's accounts. The remaining £5 million will be shared by the 67 people injured in the crash on May 10. Normally, no payments are made after an accident on the railways, in which people are injured, until the insurers for the companies responsible have accepted liability. But because it has been proving difficult to establish blame in this case, Railtrack agreed with Jarvis, the company responsible for maintaining the points that caused the crash, and West Anglia Great Northern Railway (WAGN), the train operator, to offer compensation now. The Strategic Rail Authority was also involved in the decision. Between them, they agreed Railtrack would be reimbursed if another company was found to be responsible. Railtrack will reportedly start paying out compensation immediately on claims as they are received. In a statement, Railtrack, Jarvis and WAGN said: "We, the rail industry parties involved in the Potters Bar derailment, are concerned that three months after the accident none of the various inquiries under way has been able to identify the root cause of the accident. We would not want failure to establish liability to cause unnecessary stress to the victims and relatives of those involved. Consequently, in their interests, and without prejudice to any issue of liability, Railtrack will act on behalf of the industry parties in handling and settling claims arising from the accident."

28 August 2002 – Eschede area, Germany

The trial of three German railway engineers opened today, more than four years after the country's worst train disaster. The three denied charges of negligent homicide in the crash, which killed 101 people. The men listened in silence for nearly an hour as prosecutors read the names of all those killed and the 105 who were injured. The crash happened when the InterCityExpress (ICE) train derailed and slammed into a bridge pillar near the northern town of Eschede on 3 June 1998. The train was travelling at about 125mph along the line between Hamburg and Hanover. Authorities believe the crash was caused by a broken wheel, which was exhibited in court today. Prosecutors charge that the three defendants did not ensure the safety of the wheels, which had a rubber rim encased in steel. The accident prompted a change to solid steel wheels for the first generation of ICE trains, the type that derailed. Joachim Thilo von Madeyski, Volker Fischer and Franz Murawa face 101 counts of negligent homicide and 105 counts of causing bodily harm. They could face prison sentences of up to five years if convicted. The three – two former railway employees who were in charge of wheel safety at the national railway and the manager of a firm that manufactures train wheels – rejected the charges against them in statements read by defence lawyers. The national railway, Deutsche Bahn, said it had submitted expert opinions to demonstrate that "the railway and its engineers fully complied with the technical standards at the time" and called for the acquittal of the engineers. Defence lawyers have said the crash was a tragic accident, not a criminal offence. No verdict is expected before late autumn.

10 September 2002 – Bihar State, India

At least 100 people are dead after an express train derailed and plunged into a river in India. Police say some 125 dead and injured passengers have been recovered. The accident involving the Rajdhani Express from Calcutta to New Delhi took place in Bihar state. Police say 11 cars plunged into the river and the engine and two more train cars are still dangling from the bridge. A railways police officer says authorities have not ruled out sabotage by militants in Bihar, India's most lawless state. Unconfirmed reports indicate the train tracks along the bridge had been tampered with. The officer says an Indian army rescue team is leaving from New Delhi, as well as a special train for families of passengers.

11 September 2002 – Nearly 90 bodies have been pulled from the mangled wreckage of a crashed train in eastern India and the death toll could rise further, officials say. Cranes were being manoeuvred to separate the jumbled mass of red-and-cream coloured carriages and soldiers used metal-cutting torches today to slice through the wreckage to search for victims. Officials held out little hope of finding anyone alive after Monday's (9 September) crash. Danapur Railway Division spokesman A. Das told Reuters that 88 bodies had so far been recovered and 200 people were injured. Lieutenant-Colonel V.K.S. Malik, who is leading the rescue effort told Reuters he believed more bodies were inside the wreck of the Rajdhani Express. Malik said the rescue work should be finished by tomorrow. Railway officials said they suspected sabotage, possibly by Maoist rebels active in the area who are fighting to redistribute land to peasants in the state which is one of India's poorest. But Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani yesterday played down the chance of sabotage and said the information he had suggested it was an accident. More than 90 survivors of the crash arrived in New Delhi early today aboard a special train.

11 September 2002 – The death toll from a train derailment in eastern India this week reached 105 people, officials said today, as rescuers looked for more bodies in the mangled wreck. At least 92 bodies had been recovered from the Rajdhani Express, which derailed Monday night (9 September) outside Rafiganj town, said Hem Chand Sirohi, the area administrator. At least 13 others died in the hospital yesterday, doctors said. More than 170 people are injured. The 432 train was carrying 535 passengers and 70 railway staff from Calcutta to New Delhi. It was travelling about 80 mph as it approached the British-built bridge near Rafiganj, about 420 miles south-east of New Delhi.

12 September 2002 – The death toll from the twisted wreckage of a luxury train that jumped the tracks in eastern India has risen to 105. "We have removed 105 bodies from the train. We expect a few more bodies inside the coaches," a government official at a make-shift control room near Rafiganj said.

14 September 2002 – The search for the victims' bodies of India's deadly rail crash earlier in the week has been called off, as the confirmed death toll from the disaster mounted to 126. "The search for more bodies in the coaches ended yesterday," a railway spokesman said today. "Rescue workers and railway officials carried out a thorough search before calling off the effort." "We were convinced that there were no more bodies in the coaches," he said adding traffic on the route resumed yesterday after the wreckage was cleared. Officials had earlier suggested that sabotage may have been to blame for the accident, but on Wednesday (11 September) the government appeared to backpedal from such claims.

27 September 2002 – Sibi area, Pakistan

At least 16 people were killed and 70 injured when a passenger train derailed while crossing a bridge in south-western Pakistan yesterday, sending one car plunging 4.5 metres to the ground and leaving two others dangling, railway officials said. Pakistan Railways chief controller Jalil Ahmad said eight cars of the Quetta Express had gone off the tracks as the train crossed a creaky bridge near the city of Sibi, 150km east of Quetta. "At this stage we can't say what was the cause of this incident," he said. However, other railroad officials said the bridge was believed to be weak and may have collapsed under the weight of the crossing train. It was not immediately known how many passengers the train was carrying, but army helicopters were airlifting the wounded and bringing emergency medical supplies to the site. Some passengers were still trapped in several overturned cars, officials said. Railway employee Mohammed Afzal said he was shaken from his sleep after the train came to a sudden stop in a remote farming area. "I looked out my window and saw two railway cars hanging over the bridge," he said. Six of the dust-covered cars were turned on their side. Train drivers quickly sent the engine, which survived the accident, to a railway station 20 km away to call for help. At least 12 bodies were recovered from the wreckage and the injured passengers were transported to hospitals.

27 September 2002 – About 13 people were killed when a passenger express train derailed in Pakistan's south-western province of Baluchistan, railways and communications minister Javed Ashraf says. Mr Ashraf did not rule out the possibility of sabotage. He says someone had apparently removed wooden sleepers beneath the railway tracks, causing the derailment. Mr Ashraf says the engine and the coach behind it passed the bridge safely but the remaining carriages derailed and plunged into a dried-up river bed near Sibi, some 100 kilometres south-east of the provincial capital of Quetta. Chief controller of railways Jalil-ur-Rehman says 60 people had been injured in the accident. He says the train had derailed when the bridge it was passing over collapsed. "All trains leaving Quetta for other parts of the country have been stopped," Mr Rehman said. "Those already on their way to Quetta have also been stopped at various stations."

27 September 2002 – Pakistani railway officials are working to restore services to the south-western city of Quetta after a major accident yesterday. Independent reports say 14 people died and at least 60 were injured when an express train from Rawalpindi derailed near the town of Sibi. However, railway officials put the death toll lower. All train services from Quetta except one have been cancelled. The chief railway controller in Quetta, Jalil ur Rahman, said many people who survived the derailment simply walked to the main road adjacent to the track and got transport to the nearest big towns.

2 October 2002 – Pakistan Railway has suffered a loss of Rs25 million due to Quetta Express derailment incident near Sibbi in Balochistan Province of Pakistan between Dingra and Damboli Railway stations on the Sibbi-Jacobahad section on Thursday (26 September) last, according to general manager (Operations), Pakistan Railways, Iqbal Samad Khan. The accident happened apparently due to uprooting of fish-plate, one rail length before the bridge and not due to any weakness of the bridge. The Railway authority has drawn up a rough estimate of the value of damage done to infrastructure and rolling stock, though compensation due to the next of kin of those who lost their lives or suffered serious or minor injuries was not included. He reported that three pillars of the bridge sustained damage due to this derailment. He added that there were signs of derailment, one rail length before the bridge. However, he added that the Federal Inspector of Railways is holding an inquiry and he would give the findings on whether the accident occurred due to any subversive activity or not.