Top Indian officials headed for the northern city of Amritsar on Saturday after India’s latest rail disaster, with the tragedy likely to lead – yet again – to demands for safety reforms.
Officials were still scrambling to determine an accurate death toll from Friday’s accident, but most agreed it was around 60. However, dozens more were injured when a train plowed into a crowd of revelers watching a fireworks display, so the fatalities could rise.
Overwhelmed local hospitals ran out of space for the dead, forcing them to leave some bodies outside, Agence France-Presse reported.
India’s accident-plagued railway system records thousands of deaths each year. A 2012 government report described the loss of 15,000 passengers to rail accidents every year in India as a “massacre.”
Reports said that on Friday, a Jalandhar-Amritsar express train hit scores of people who had gathered on tracks to watch the burning of a fireworks-packed effigy of the demon king Ravana for a Hindu festival.
Police said victims did not hear the train arriving because the noise was drowned out by firecrackers.
Another train had narrowly missed the crowds two minutes earlier, officials said.
Many bodies were badly dismembered and police said identification of the victims could take several days, officials said.
The funerals of some victims were held on Saturday and the accident brought widespread demands for tough action by authorities.
Punjab state Governor V P Singh Badnore said: “Those who need to be punished will be punished and accountability will be fixed.”
The Indian government has pledged US$137 billion over five years to modernize the crumbling network.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal returned early from a trip to the United States to go to Amritsar on Saturday. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh called off a trip to Israel to go to the disaster scene.
– With reporting by AFP
How is it Indian railways fault. Civic sense is something every one should have.
People taking over a railway track to have better view of Ravan Dahan program, local event organisers and police not coordinating about crowd control or informing Railways of this, these are the root causes of this sad accident.
How is it Indian railways fault. Civic sense is something every one should have.
People taking over a railway track to have better view of Ravan Dahan program, local event organisers and police not coordinating about crowd control or informing Railways of this, these are the root causes of this sad accident.
Shrinivas Nanduri: You are so right in your observation here. The organizers should have taken far greater care to warn spectators, informed the railway authorities about this event and police could have taken some firm measures to warn the spectators (which often assumes herd like mindset ). This is so common in India everyday. One wonders whether the society will ever correct this behaviour at all for a long time! Hence this tragedy.
Politicians then arrive at scene of tragedy and hand over a Lakh of rupees to victims or their family as compensation. Then everything will be forgotten until the reoccurrence of a next similar tragedy.
What a tragedy that even a minimal sense for a need to enforce some sort of discipline never seems to dawn on people of Mother India. What a needless loss of life.
Shrinivas Nanduri: You are so right in your observation here. The organizers should have taken far greater care to warn spectators, informed the railway authorities about this event and police could have taken some firm measures to warn the spectators (which often assumes herd like mindset ). This is so common in India everyday. One wonders whether the society will ever correct this behaviour at all for a long time! Hence this tragedy.
Politicians then arrive at scene of tragedy and hand over a Lakh of rupees to victims or their family as compensation. Then everything will be forgotten until the reoccurrence of a next similar tragedy.
What a tragedy that even a minimal sense for a need to enforce some sort of discipline never seems to dawn on people of Mother India. What a needless loss of life.
Arsalan Khan: Mr Cohen is right here . Indian commandos are perhaps poorly trained and equipped and to great extent the politicos are corrupt. But when it comes to self less courage, Israeli special op troops have shown exemplary service in peace and conflict since the birth of their little country in 1949! Remember their little country is being protected against 100 million Muslim Arabs who has vowed to wipe out Israelis using Jihadi human bombs against even innocents. Just think about it as to who is a real cowards he Really!
Arsalan Khan: Mr Cohen is right here . Indian commandos are perhaps poorly trained and equipped and to great extent the politicos are corrupt. But when it comes to self less courage, Israeli special op troops have shown exemplary service in peace and conflict since the birth of their little country in 1949! Remember their little country is being protected against 100 million Muslim Arabs who has vowed to wipe out Israelis using Jihadi human bombs against even innocents. Just think about it as to who is a real cowards he Really!