our local vernacular daily has posted this news regarding Amritsar mishap. it says the driver tried to brake and the speed reduced from around 90 kmph to about 65 kmph. he would not have applied emergency brakes otherwise the train would have derailed and would have caused more casualties. also the news item says that there was darkness, lot of smoke and it was a sharp turn and therefore the driver could not realise that there were people on the track. by the time he realised and applied the brakes, it was too late. the report says to stop train at this speed it would require about 625 m distance which was just not possible in this case.
really...
more... sad incident. how much of the above is true, God knows. but really unfortunate.