THE HINDU EDITORIAL

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Rumour has it: on the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express accident

The underlying causes of the track deaths have more to do with deep rooted malaises

Panic and confusion seem to have triggered the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express accident in Maharashtra that killed 12 people and injured at least 10 others. Eyewitness accounts talk about the rumour of a fire that led to an alarm chain being pulled and the train coming to a stop. Passengers often choose to get down when their train makes unscheduled stops and that is what happened near Pachora station in Jalgaon district. Those who deboarded on the side of an oncoming train on the adjacent track, the Karnataka Express, were mowed down. Reports talk about a curve that reduced the line of sight of the driver of the oncoming train who, nevertheless, promptly applied the brakes seeing the flashing lights, as in the procedure adopted to stop all other trains when one train stops midsection. The Karnataka Express was speeding and had a braking distance of some 750 m; the Rajdhani needs more than a kilometre to stop. It could have been worse had the brakes not been applied promptly, railway officials have been quoted as saying. Passengers deboarding a train and facing danger is not uncommon either. Auto doors that can be opened and closed only by railway personnel — a feature of the Vande Bharat and Rajdhani trains — may need to be fitted in general trains as well. Such doors come with their own logistical challenges such as a requirement that the door locking system of each bogie matches with the rest, but it may well be worth the cost.

The panic shown by the passengers is a typical response in India and is seen in stampedes. In 2017, a flower vendor on a rail platform bridge at Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai, apparently complained in Marathi of ‘her flowers falling’, which commuters misunderstood to mean that the bridge was collapsing, leading to a stampede that killed 23 people. Probably, the series of railway accidents in recent times was fresh in the minds of the Pushpak Express passengers and added to the panic. While those accidents, at first glance, were caused by human errors or local faults, they were actually a result of a long-term and unaddressed need for enhancing railway safety. Further, initial media reports quoted railway officials talking about “hot axle” and “brake binding” that may have caused sparks and smoke, which gave rise to fears of a fire, and in turn the alarm chain being pulled. Brake binding happens when a brake is applied by the driver but after its release the brake does not disengage in one or more bogies. The wheels, instead of rolling, would only slide when speed picks up, leading to the emission of sparks and smoke. Brake binding is a case of poor maintenance. An inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety concerned, an independent body of railway experts that does not come under the Railway Ministry, should uncover the true cause of Wednesday’s accident.