Gaisal railway accident

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In the railway accident Gaisal the early morning of August 2 came in 1999 Station of Gaisal , in the district of Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal , India , the Awadh-Assam Express and Brahmaputra Mail together. 287 people died.

Starting position

Infrastructure

Railway facilities in the Gaisal area were threatened by the Bodo Liberation Tigers Force , an underground tribal organization that had blown up railway facilities the day before .

Gaisal train station is on a slight curve. Train drivers of counter driving into the station trains can see only very late because the station entrances through the intervening reception building are covered reciprocally.

At Kishanganj train station , about 13 km before the later Gaisal accident site, the signaling systems were replaced and a second track was installed south of the station . To the north of the station, however, the line was already double-tracked . Due to the construction work, only one of four tracks in the station was accessible and the automatic train protection was switched off. The signals and points required for train journeys were made manually. Turnouts had to be changed with a special key and then locked before a train was allowed to enter the track assigned to it. It took up to 30 minutes to create a driveway using this method. In order to compensate for the additional workload for the staff in this special operational situation, additional staff was assigned to the station. Furthermore, the power had just failed in the station .

The trains involved

The Awadh-Assam Express , train number 5610, came from New Delhi and headed northeast. A large number of military and police members traveling to the north Indian border region traveled in it.

The Brahmaputra Mail , train number 4055, ran in the opposite direction, came from Dibrugarh and was heading southwest to New Delhi . The two completely overcrowded trains carried around 2,500 passengers together .

Even before the Brahmaputra Mail , a freight train was running in the same direction and passed through the Gaisal, Panjipara and Kishanganj stations, which are located one behind the other, also to the southwest, and further to the southwest.

the accident

The route set for the freight train remained in place due to a decision by the deputy dispatcher at Kishanganj station. He wanted to save the cumbersome, manual changeover procedure, knew that the track in the opposite direction to Gaisal would also be free for the expected 15 minutes' travel time, and expected his colleague in Gaisal to get the train back on the train with the signal box technology that worked for him Will guide the direction of travel track. This construction site-related improvisation was not contrary to the regulations. The deputy dispatcher from Kishanganj therefore gave the locomotive driver of the Awadh-Assam Express a written order to drive the wrong way on the track in the opposite direction.

However, when he reported the train to the next station, Panjipara, he failed to inform it that he was allowing the train to run on the track in the opposite direction. The engine driver was aware of the wrong drive and the associated danger. Therefore, he stopped at the next train station, Panjipara, for about 11 minutes in order to have another written order to continue on the track in the opposite direction. He also received this. The dispatcher at Panjipara station, however, simply forwarded the train report received from Kishanganj to the next station, Gaisal, but also without the information that the Awadh-Assam Express was approaching the opposite direction on the track. This was later assessed as the wrongdoing that ultimately triggered the accident .

The arrival of the Brahmaputra Mail had meanwhile been reported to Gaisal station from the opposite direction . Since the dispatcher there was not informed of the wrong journey of the Awadh-Assam Express coming from the other direction , he granted the Brahmaputra Mail entry on the usual track - for the opposite entry of the Awadh-Assam Express , a route was laid on the adjacent track, that this train did not run at all.

From the exit of the Awadh-Assam Express from Kishanganj station to the accident, about 20 minutes passed, during which none of the railway workers involved noticed anything. This was ultimately the main allegation in the subsequent legal proceedings.

At around 1:45 a.m., the trains entered Gaisal station at line speeds of 80 to 100 km / h. Because of the visibility in the station, the train drivers could only have grasped the situation at the last moment. In the impact, 13 cars were thrown up to 15 meters into the air and wedged into a pile of rubble. The wreckage of the train caught fire . The station building at Gaisal train station was also destroyed in the accident.

consequences

Immediate consequences

According to a court decision, 287 people died in the accident , including the two engine drivers and their two men and 90 soldiers , and 312 people were also injured.

The Gaisal rescue service was overwhelmed by the extent of the disaster. So stood z. B. initially not enough cutting torches available, so that many surviving victims died in the rubble of the trains, who otherwise could have been saved. Some relief trains had to come from Calcutta , which took 14 hours. Observers had the impression that the rescue measures had not yet fully started even 24 hours after the accident. Looting is said to have taken place in the rubble of the train . The nearest hospitals in Kishanganj and Islampur were also not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude. Heavy rain the following day was helpful for the fire fighting.

Work-up

An initial suspicion that it was a terrorist attack, which was initially spread by the station staff in Gaisal, could not be held for long. The deputy dispatcher at Kishanganj Station fled and was not arrested in Katihar until August 10 . The Gaisal station master committed suicide .

It took three days to evacuate the scene of the accident. Indian Railways Minister Nitish Kumar resigned due to the accident.

In 2007, a court sentenced six of the railway workers involved to two years ' imprisonment and a fine for negligent neglect of official duties, including the dispatchers from Panjipara and Kishanganj, as well as employees of the signal boxes at these stations, a switch attendant and the driver of the Awadh-Assam Express .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Other figures (see: Indian Railways - A political blog speaks of 268 dead and another 359 injured, Sen: Gaisal Train Accident , of 300 dead and 600 injured) come from press reports immediately after the accident and are therefore doubtful.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b NN: India train crash
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Sen: Gaisal Train Accident
  3. ↑ a b c Vij: Gaisal Tragedy .
  4. ↑ a b c Chanda: Human error
  5. ^ PTI: Gaisal train .
  6. ↑ a b c d NN: Gaisal train disaster
  7. ^ A b c PTI: Six railwaymen punished

Coordinates: 26 ° 11 '3 "  N , 88 ° 5' 21.9"  E