Amritsar Railway Accident

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In the Amritsar railway accident on October 19, 2018 at around 6:45 p.m. in Amritsar , Punjab , India , a local train drove to spectators at a religious ceremony, who also stood and sat in large numbers in the track area. At least 61 people came to us.

Starting position

The Dashahara festival is one of the highest religious holidays in Hinduism . At the height of the festival, a statue of the demon Ravana is burned. Fireworks were then set off. For safety reasons the 300 to 700 spectators were asked to resign and so gave way in the track area of the adjacent operating agency Joda Phatak of the Indian Railways from.

The Amritsar – Haora express train passed the scene without causing an accident. Shortly afterwards, a diesel railcar , which was traveling in the opposite direction from Jalandhar to Amritsar, approached the Joda Phatak operating station . According to the information provided by the driver , the entry signal showed "Drive free" and nobody had informed him about the crowd on the platform.

the accident

When the diesel railcar approached the operating site, the fireworks were set off. Its noise level drowned out the noise of the approaching train, which was not perceived by the spectators. The driver gave a warning signal, which was apparently also drowned out by the fireworks, and triggered an emergency brake . The train did not stop in front of the crowd gathered in the track area and ran over numerous people. The crowd then began to throw stones at the train so that the driver drove on to the next station to protect the passengers.

consequences

At least 61 people died and 72 were injured. Traffic on the route was interrupted for 40 hours. The railway declined any responsibility for the accident , which was solely due to the fact that people had unauthorized access to the tracks.

Web links

Remarks

  1. Also: "Jodha Phatak" or "Jaura Phatak".

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Amritsar train accident. In: India Today . October 19, 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
  2. a b c d Dussehra ; Munish Sharma: At least 59 killed
  3. a b Amritsar train tragedy

Coordinates: 31 ° 37 '51.3 "  N , 74 ° 53' 49.9"  E