Inquiry begins to find trigger for freak Jalgaon train tragedy
At least 12 people were killed and 10 others injured on Wednesday after they jumped off the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express amid rumours of a fire in a coach and were mowed down by the Karnataka Express running towards Delhi on the adjacent tracks.
A curve on the tracks was likely one of the main factors behind the freak Jalgaon train incident, as it obstructed the line of sight of one of the drivers and limited the time he had to apply emergency brakes, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday as authorities began investigating the trigger for the incident.
At least 12 people were killed and 10 others injured on Wednesday after they jumped off the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express amid rumours of a fire in a coach and were mowed down by the Karnataka Express running towards Delhi on the adjacent tracks.
Officials aware of the investigation said that the Pushpak Express halted between the Maheji and Pardhade stations, at a spot close to a curve on the tracks, after the passengers pulled the alarm chain. As per the protocols, the train’s driver turned on the emergency warning light, known as the flasher light, but the driver of the oncoming Karnataka Express did not spot it on time because of the bend in the tracks, they added.
“The Pushpak Express stopped before a 1.75-degree curvature on the tracks after the passengers pulled the alarm chain. As per the rules, the emergency lights of the Pushpak Express were turned on but were visible only from a distance of roughly 180m. The Karnataka Express’s driver applied emergency brakes immediately after seeing the light, but the train could stop after moving for another 672m,” one of the officials close to the investigation said.
As per the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), a government body responsible for developing and standardising railway technologies and safety protocols, the adequate distance required for the train to stop in an emergency is 581 metres.
“The Karnataka Express started braking at the speed of around 100 km/hr and likely struck the passengers when it was travelling at 50 km/hr,” a railways official from the Bhusaval railway division said.
According to witnesses, panic and uncertainty gripped the passengers after some of them claimed to have spotted smoke coming from under a bogie, triggering the chain of events that led to the incident. A day later, it was established that there was no fire in the train; there was still uncertainty over what caused the smoke — the overheating of a part of the locomotive or passengers smoking inside coaches.
One of the theories doing the rounds is that “hot axle”, the overheating of a train wheel, caused the smoke. “Earlier, hot axles were detected as they made a noise. In the current coaches, they are detected by sparks,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
However, Railway Board officials rejected this theory, arguing that hot axle predominately occurs in goods trains. “A few passengers who were smoking in a group started the rumour of a fire. They were part of the group that stepped down the coach before being run over by the Karnataka Express,” a Railway board official said on condition of anonymity.
Separately, news agency PTI quoted unnamed railways officials as saying that the passengers of the Pushpak Express had sufficient time to move to a safer location as the Karnataka Express reached the incident spot nearly 20 minutes after the Mumbai-bound train came to a halt. “The initial version reported by many suggested that passengers didn’t have time to move to a safe place and they had no option but to jump on the tracks. But, it is incorrect,” a railway official said on condition of anonymity.
To be sure, all the circumstances linked to the freak incident can be officially established once the ongoing investigation is completed.