UTTAR PRADESH TRAIN DISASTER
(20 dead, 100 injured in train disaster in Uttar Pradesh)
At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured Sunday (10th, July, 2011) when 14 coaches of the Kalka-bound Kalka Mail ran off the rails in Uttar Pradesh, leaving many passengers trapped in the mangled mess.Villagers and rescue workers frantically tried to cut open overturned coaches and free people trapped in them even hours after the disaster at Malwan in Fatehpur district, some 150 km from Lucknow. Seven of the coaches were capsized and badly mangled, including the pantry car and the air-conditioned coaches, officials said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock over the accident, the second involving a train in three days.Thirty-eight people were killed in Kanshiram Nagar, also in Uttar Pradesh, Thursday when the Chhapra-Mathura Express rammed into a bus at an unmanned railway crossing.
The reason for the latest accident was not immediately known. The derailment happened as the train, running at over 100 km per hour, was approaching the Malwan railway station shortly after noon and the driver reportedly applied emergency brakes.The Uttar Pradesh Police put the toll at 20 dead and warned it could go up."Twenty bodies have been recovered... It won't be surprising if more than 50 people are killed. Many bodies are still trapped inside the coaches," Special Director General of Police Brij Lal told IANS.More than 200 policemen joined villagers, who were the first to reach the site, to rescue passengers and take the injured to hospitals, he said.
The train, carrying about 1,000 passengers, was bound for Kalka in Haryana. It was coming from Howrah in West Bengal.Pradeep Ojha, a senior development operations manager of North Central Railway (NCR), said a number of people were still trapped in the coaches."This train was going almost at full speed and skidded inside the station territory. About 10 coaches are in badly crushed condition," NCR general manager Harish Chandra Joshi said. More than 100 people are likely to be injured, he added. Rescuing people from inside the overturned compartments turned out to be a tough job in the absence of specialised equipment and professionals. Some of the badly injured were put on large pieces of cloth and rushed to the nearest vehicle to be taken to hospitals in Fatehpur town, 17 km away.Many of the injured limped with their luggage. Others looked dazed. A few crawled out of windows after breaking open the glass. Some passengers frantically appealed to their families using television reporters to seek help.Both the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments announced compensation for the victims.Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa told the media before leaving for the disaster site that families of the dead would be given Rs.5 lakh and the seriously injured Rs.100,000.Those with simple injuries would get Rs.25,000. "We will have an investigation," he said. As the derailed coaches had fallen on rows of adjoining tracks, the railways cancelled 12 trains and diverted 23. Railway officials said that two relief trains - from Kanpur and Allahabad - have been sent to the spot.Another train would take the passengers unaffected by the accident to New Delhi, Joshi said.India's rail network is one of the largest in the world and carries about 14 million passengers a day.
The train, carrying about 1,000 passengers, was bound for Kalka in Haryana. It was coming from Howrah in West Bengal.Pradeep Ojha, a senior development operations manager of North Central Railway (NCR), said a number of people were still trapped in the coaches."This train was going almost at full speed and skidded inside the station territory. About 10 coaches are in badly crushed condition," NCR general manager Harish Chandra Joshi said. More than 100 people are likely to be injured, he added. Rescuing people from inside the overturned compartments turned out to be a tough job in the absence of specialised equipment and professionals. Some of the badly injured were put on large pieces of cloth and rushed to the nearest vehicle to be taken to hospitals in Fatehpur town, 17 km away.Many of the injured limped with their luggage. Others looked dazed. A few crawled out of windows after breaking open the glass. Some passengers frantically appealed to their families using television reporters to seek help.Both the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments announced compensation for the victims.Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa told the media before leaving for the disaster site that families of the dead would be given Rs.5 lakh and the seriously injured Rs.100,000.Those with simple injuries would get Rs.25,000. "We will have an investigation," he said. As the derailed coaches had fallen on rows of adjoining tracks, the railways cancelled 12 trains and diverted 23. Railway officials said that two relief trains - from Kanpur and Allahabad - have been sent to the spot.Another train would take the passengers unaffected by the accident to New Delhi, Joshi said.India's rail network is one of the largest in the world and carries about 14 million passengers a day.
Prof. John Kurakar
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