SAFETY LAST
The Railways, it seems, never learns from its mistakes. Every time an accident occurs, a committee is set up and an inquiry ordered, the findings and recommendations left to gather dust. The same was the case with the recommendations made by the C.L. Kaw Committee following the August 1995 train accident at Ferozabad in Uttar Pradesh. Had these suggestions -- even some of them -- been taken note of, the tragedy at Gaisal could, perhaps, have been averted. Says K.Hasan, safety expert and secretary general of the Indian Railways Promotee Officers Federation: "Committees are useful only if their words are translated into action."
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Kaw Committee, in its 1996 report,suggested various steps to improve rail-travel safety. They included:
Developing "crashworthy" coaches whose superior structural design could withstand high levels of impact. Nothing has been done to implement this recommendation.
Complete track-circuiting of stations. This is a safety device which lights up on detecting the presence of a vehicle on a section of track, usually extending 675 m to a km on either side of a station. A vital input for the signalman. The Railways, which has track-circuited only the faster 'A' and 'B' routes, needs Rs 1,000 crore for the whole project.
Allocating more development funds. Just 2 per cent of the development fund of Indian Railways -- as against 20-30 per cent in the US, UK and Japan -- is spent on safety.
Making locomotive and station staff more accountable. Studies by the Railways show that about 70 per cent of all rail accidents are caused by inattentive station staff like station masters and guards and callous locomotive running staff. At Kishanganj too, the interlocking device was not working. What the station master obviously forgot was that the 'switch-rail' point was clamped and the keys were with the pointman. It is at this point that the Brahmaputra Mail took a right turn on to the line of the approaching Avadh-Assam Express, passed Panjipara and slammed it with a ferocious impact.
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