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Runaway train was not secured: probe blames engine, station staff
The engineers of a freight train that rolled down from Kathua station on Sunday morning and travelled roughly 75km with no one in control did not adhere to protocol to deploy adequate number of brakes and track wedges when they parked the locomotive, a preliminary inquiry into the incident has found, according to details accessed by HT.
The engineers of a freight train that rolled down from Kathua station on Sunday morning and travelled roughly 75km with no one in control did not adhere to protocol to deploy adequate number of brakes and track wedges when they parked the locomotive, a preliminary inquiry into the incident has found, according to details accessed by HT.
Six people have been suspended and the initial inquiry blames four people -- both engineers (also referred to as loco pilots in official parlance) who were on duty, and the pointsman and the station master of Kathua station -- for Sunday morning’s incident when the 53-wagon freight train barrelled on for close to two hours, at times reaching 75km/hr.
The train was halted at Uchi Bassi station in Punjab after railway staff placed sand bags and other track impediments before an uphill gradient helped bring it to a halt.
The report has said that the train rolled “down from line number 3 towards Pathankot Cantt [since] no proper stabling [was] done by loco pilot Sandeep Kumar, assistant loco pilot Pradeep Kumar and pointsman Sh. Mohd Sami”.
A pointsman is a trackside staffer responsible for a number of tasks, including ensuring parked trains are secured in place and track points are correctly aligned.
The report also blamed station master Triveni Lal Gupta.
The two men who helmed the train till Kathua left the engine at the end of the shift, it found.
According to the probe, the DMT (divisional material train – or a train that ferries materials for Railways’ own works) halted at Kathua but the station master asked it to it to be taken to Pathankot cantonment. “However, the loco pilot (engineer) refused to do so as the rake did not have a brake van and train manager (earlier referred to as guard). It was then that the pilot was asked to switch off the power,” said the report.
The probe found that the main engineer said he had applied two wooden wedges around the wheels of both engines and on three of the wagons immediately after.
The guidelines for such scenarios lay down that wooden wedges must be placed on six coaches, and a number of brakes -- manual brakes deployed from coaches towards the end and the train’s hand and parking brakes -- must be deployed. None of these brakes had been activated, the report found.
“It is the crew’s responsibility to secure the load in such situations to avoid any such incident. The crew left the train in hurry, shutting down the loco and not securing the load as per the rules. It is also the station master’s duty to ensure that the crew have done their job, which was not done. This led to the runaway incident,” said an official, asking not to be named.
“The entire train including diesel multiple locomotives, rolled down at a speed of about 70 to 75 kmph and crossed eight-to-nine stations (about 75km away). It was stopped by the efforts made by the railway staff at Uchi Bassi station,” the official added.
No one was injured as railway officials sounded an alarm and cleared the tracks on the way while also closing off all rail crossings over roughly two panic-filled hours that experts said could have ended in disaster.
The divisional railway manager (DRM) of Ferozepur, Sanjay Sahoo, who was in Jalandhar for the virtual inauguration of the renovated Jalandhar City station by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, said the railway board has constituted a high-level committee to probe the incident and that six employees had been suspended. “The committee members are in Kathua. On the basis of a preliminary probe, six railway employees, including Kathua station master, loco pilot (engineer), assistant loco pilot (ALP), Kathua’s pointsman, local inspector and traffic inspector concerned have been suspended with immediate effect,” the DRM said.
The committee will submit a detailed report after looking into the reasons behind the negligence. “On the basis of the report, further action will be taken,” the DRM said.
Sahoo added that had it been an electric engine, staff could have simply cut power to the line to stop the train.
The DRM said senior officials, including him, rushed to central control room and started monitoring the situation to avoid a mishap. “We were waiting for the speed to come down as we were ready to derail the train at a secluded place. The train lost momentum as we put hindrances, including sand, stones and wooden blocks, on the track at several spots before we finally managed to stop it near Ucchi Bassi,” he said.
A Railways spokesperson did not comment on the preliminary findings.
The preliminary report found that the engineers left the train without adequately “stabling” it first and had left before a memo of authorisation came from the stationmaster.
It found the station master guilty of not stabling the rake as per the standard operating procedure and the pointsman was noted to be guilty for applying only wooden wedges.
According to the rules, the pointman should have applied safety chains and hand brakes on six wagons on the rear end of the train.
In view of the negligence, Indian Railways issued a safety circular in Ambala division on Sunday, a copy of which is seen by HT. It stated, “a special drive for counselling Loco Pilots is being run for 15 days from Sunday to March 10, under which all CLIs (chief loco inspectors) should seriously advise their nominated Loco Pilots and Assistant Loco Pilots about following the standard operating procedure (SOP).”
(With inputs from Navrajdeep Singh in Jalandhar)
