The failure of the railway staff continued to be on top among the reasons behind train accidents this year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said while the number of train accidents had decreased from 107 in 2015-2016 to 104 in 2016- 2017 and to 52 till December 15 in 2017-18 (as compared to 87 in the same corresponding period last year), the failure of the railway staff continued to be the topmost reason behind these incidents.
While the failure of the staff led to 31 accidents in 2017-18 (till December 15), 64 such accidents had occurred due to their error in 2016-2017 and the number was 55 in 2015-2016, Gohain informed the Upper House.
The failure of others resulted in 14 accidents in 2017- 2018 (till December 15), while the number was 22 in 2016-17 and 38 in 2015-2016.
Only one accident occurred due to sabotage in 2017-2018, the minister said.
Gohain also said the number of pending cases of compensation, relating to train accidents, was 419 till December 15 in 2017-18.