Railway accidents

Citation

(2007), "Railway accidents", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316bac.004

Railway accidents

3 October 2005 Datia Area, India

At least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured in a train crash in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh this morning. The accident happened when six carriages of the Bundelkhand Express derailed near Datia town, a police officer said. Rescue teams, including soldiers, are at the site about 250 miles north of the state capital, Bhopal. A police officer says the train derailed near the Datia station and rescue teams, including soldiers, have reached the site and are removing passengers from the cars. “We suspect the brakes of the train failed,” he said. He says the train sped through the station where it was due to stop and jumped the tracks in the area ahead where coaches are serviced and cleaned. The train was going from the Hindu holy town of Varanasi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh.

3 October 2005. A crowded, speeding train jumped the tracks in central India today and crashed into a signal cabin, killing 18 passengers and injuring about 100, authorities said. At least 40 of the injured were in critical condition and had been removed to hospitals, police said as rescue efforts closed for the night. Six coaches of the Bundelkhand Express derailed at Datia town in Madhya Pradesh, about 400 km north of the state capital, Bhopal, a police officer said. He said the train derailed near the Datia station and rescue teams, including soldiers, had reached the site and were removing passengers from the cars. The officer said the train had been due to stop at the station but sped through and jumped the tracks in an area where coaches are serviced and cleaned. “We suspect the brakes of the train failed,” he added. It crashed into the signal cabin beside the tracks and the impact left coaches piled one on top of the other, railway officials said. “We have people trapped in the carriages. The rescue teams are cutting into the carriages and we will see how many people are trapped inside,” Datia district administrator Caroline Khongwar told NDTV news channel. A.K. Soni, a senior state police officer, said 18 bodies had been found. Many of the injured had been taken to hospitals in nearby Jhansi town as Datia did not have adequate medical facilities. The driver of the train was among the dead. “The train’s speed limit was supposed to be 15 kph but as far as I have been able to find out, it was going at 90 kph at the station,” said Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The train was going from the Hindu holy town of Varanasi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh.