Nearly 30,000 deaths in 3 yrs due to trespassing, ‘untoward incidents’: Railways

Niti Aayog had sought to know if the railways claim of zero deaths was realistic.

The ministry of railways on Thursday said there have been nearly 29,000-30,000 deaths due to trespassing and other “untoward incidents” on railway premises over the past three years, following queries raised by government think-tank Niti Aayog on railways’ claim of zero accidental deaths in the year 2019-20.

Railways says it has little control over instances of trespassing or passenger carelessness leading to deaths.(AFP Photo)

Railway-related accidents refer to only train-related accidents such as train derailment while deaths due to trespassing are counted as human error.

“It is true that consequential accidents were indeed zero in 2019-2020 and so far this year as well. We keep records of deaths due to trespassing, like when people come on the tracks and are run over or people standing on the footboard of trains or hanging out of trains. In the last three years, around 29,000 to 30,000 people have lost their lives due to either trespassing or untoward incidents,” railway board chairman VK Yadav said on Thursday. He added that the data will be provided to the think tank.

“More than 8 billion passengers travelled last year. Railways has achieved zero passenger fatalities due to accidents in the last year. This has been achieved with lots of efforts on the part of Railways. While the deaths of passengers due to railway accidents has become Zero, unfortunate Casualties do occur due to trespassing and untoward incidents like falling from trains and due to negligence or carelessness on the part of passengers/public. These are incidents on which Railways have little or no control. Efforts are on to sensitise the public on avoiding such situations,” the ministry said.

In a letter to Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav, Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant on July 24 had sought clarity from railways over the ministry’s claim of zero deaths in the current fiscal and only five deaths in 2019-20 and questioned the reliability of the data while pointing towards more than a thousand deaths in Mumbai suburban section every year.

“As per the data presented by the Indian Railways, there has been a noticeable improvement in railway safety,” Kant said in a letter. “The presentation highlights a total of five deaths recorded in 2019-20 and zero deaths in the current fiscal years. Is this a realistic record? In the Mumbai suburban network, over 2,000 people lose their lives every year. It was informed that these deaths are caused on accounts of trespassing and therefore not counted.”

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“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that many of these deaths are caused by people falling overboard or from the platform on to the tracks. Hence, this should not be excluded from the purview of The Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK). It should be ideally recorded officially,” Kant wrote in the letter.

Yadav said that the ministry is planning to induct indigenously-built automatic train protection system that is designed to prevent collisions in the event of a human error. Yadav said the Railways had successfully removed all unmanned level crossings and is making efforts to reduce such deaths to zero.