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Bihar train accident: 8-year-old girl among 4 killed; 30 injured
The accident on Wednesday night, however, preliminary investigations suggested, was caused by a rail fracture.
Four passengers were killed and 30 injured after 23 coaches of the North East Express derailed near Raghunathpur station in Bihar’s Buxar district on Wednesday night, state government officials said on Thursday.
There were frantic rescue operations through the night, first led by local residents who pulled people out of the damaged bogeys, and then by the Railways and the district administration that said that all those trapped have now been evacuated, and work is in progress to situate the bogeys back on the track and resume operations. Overall, the accident led to 95 trains being diverted, 31 cancelled and two rescheduled.
Also read: Fault in tracks likely cause of derailment, says initial probe
The accident comes months after errors in the automated signalling system led to the Coromandel Express colliding into a stationary goods train, with some of its bogeys then crashing into the onrushing Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express in Odisha’s Bahanaga Bazaar, leaving 296 dead and over a 1,000 people injured in what was India’s worst rail disaster for two decades.
The accident on Wednesday night, however, preliminary investigations suggested, was caused by a rail fracture.
The train that originated from Anand Vihar Terminal in New Delhi was on its way to Kamakhya Junction in Assam, and was running 40 minutes behind schedule when passengers inside felt a sharp jolt at 9.51pm on Wednesday, just after it passed the Buxar railway station.
While 23 bogeys were derailed, all four passengers who died were travelling aboard coach B7, a third AC bogey, and M2, a third AC economy bogey. The dead were identified as Usha Bhandari (33) and her daughter, Akriti Bhandari (8), both from Delhi’s Mehrauli; Abu Jayand (27) from Kishanganj; and Narendra Kumar (27) from Rajasthan who worked as a community health centre officer at the Bihar Health Society in Begusarai.
Usha Bhandari’s husband Deepak, who was travelling with his wife and their twin daughters, said, “They had gone to wash their hands after dinner when the train derailed. They were thrown out of the coach.” He said he suffered minor injuries and that his second daughter is safe, but distraught.
At the site in the morning, pillars, electrical poles and signal posts lay strewn, amid a mass of upturned coaches and wrecked tracks. At least 17 bogeys were completely off the rails, with three coaches lying on their side.
Pradeep Kumar, a passenger from Hisar in Haryana, said he was sleeping on the side lower berth of AC-3 coach but woke up in the hospital. “I was going to New Jalpaiguri for a medical exam of the Shashatra Seema Bal (SSB) and boarded the train from New Delhi,” he said.
Another passenger, Kartik Yadav from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, said most of the passengers were either asleep or preparing to go to sleep when the accident took place. “The jerks were so strong that many fell down from their berths. Some were trapped under luggage. The jerks continued for 10-15 minutes before the train stopped and by that time, it was clear that there was an accident; the lights also went off,” he said.
The first responders to the scene of the accident were local residents from Rajpur, Kaithi, Pokhraha and Baswar villages under Raghunathpur police station area who emerged from their homes with ladders, ropes, torches and did what they could to help. Video footage from the spot showed them entering coaches and helping people out, and responding to cries of help. “Most passengers seemed like they had sustained head injuries. We first looked for people trapped as they were wails and cries all around,” said a local tea vendor.
Officials at the Raghunathpur Community Health Centre (CHC), where the injured were first brought, said more than 70 people came to the hospital through the night. “Thirty-eight people were treated for minor injuries at the CHC itself, and 31 others were sent to AIIMS Patna, the government hospital in Buxar and Ara,” said retired Colonel Gopal Krishna Yada, medical officer in charge of Raghunathpur CHC.
On Thursday morning, however, Birendra Kumar, central public relations officer of Eastern Central Railways, in a statement said four people were killed and 25 suffered minor injuries in the incident.
At least 10 people were sent to the trauma centre of AIIMS Patna, 98 kilometres away. “Six of them have minor injuries, one has a femur fracture, one has a rib fracture, one condylar fracture and one has cervical fracture,” said AIIMS executive director DR GK Pal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express his grief. “Pained by the loss of lives due to the derailment of a few coaches of the North East Express. Condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for a quick recovery of the injured. Authorities are providing all possible assistance to all those affected,” he said.
Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw wrote on the micro-blogging site: “Deepest condolences for the irreparable loss. Will find the root cause of derailment.”
Senior railway officials said a relief and rescue train reached the site at 1.30am and 1,006 passengers were sent onwards in their journey. “The Railways will give compensation of ₹10 lakh to families of the dead while those critically injured will be provided ₹2.5 lakh, and those with minor injury will be given ₹50,000 each,” Birendra Kumar said.
The Bihar government also announced a compensation of ₹4 lakh for the deceased. “I am pained at the mishap. The state government will provide free medical treatment to all injured passengers,” Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said.
