‘Loco pilot alone is not responsible…’ CCRS report on Kanchenjunga train accident, know where the mistake happened

New Delhi: The report of Chief Commissioner Railway Safety (CCRS) Janak Kumar Garg has come in the case of collision between Kanchenjunga Express and goods train on June 17 in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. In this, the train accident category has been stated as ‘error in train working’. The report says that it was not the fault of the loco pilot, ALP or the guard alone, but there was a ‘lapse’ at the level of the station manager and many officials related to train operations. Due to which this train accident happened and 10 people died in the accident including the pilot of the goods train and the guard of Kanchenjunga.

What did the report say?

The report also advised the Railway Board to prepare a uniform system across the country for automatic signaling system including installation of shields for safe running of trains. Because, the mistakes or omissions that happened in the Kanchenjunga Express accident were not due to any one person but also due to different understanding of things. For example, before Kanchenjunga and the goods train, five more trains had left from Rangapani Railway Station. The station master had issued T/A 912 authority to all of them. But all these trains had reached ahead at different speeds. The trains took time ranging from 14 minutes to 36 minutes. Out of these seven trains, only the pilot of Kanchenjunga Express followed the rules and due to bad signals, he/she drove the train at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour.
But this does not mean that the LPs of other trains did not follow the rules. Since the train limit was not written anywhere on the T/A 912 authority. Due to this, the pilots of all the trains ran the trains according to their own convenience. The highest speed in this was shown by the goods train that hit Kanchenjunga from behind at 78 kilometers per hour.

The goods train had applied emergency brakes

Speedometer data has revealed that on the day of the accident, when the train T/A 912 left with authority at 8:45:43 am, its speed was 15 kmph. But the LP kept increasing its speed and 4:04 minutes later at 8:50:02 minutes, the speed of the goods train reached 78 KMPH. Kanchenjunga Express was standing at a turn ahead. Then at 8:50:03 am, as soon as the LP of the goods train saw Kanchenjunga standing ahead, he/she immediately applied emergency brakes. In 15 seconds, the speed of the train came down to 40 KMPH and at 8:50:18, the goods train hit the Kanchenjunga Express from behind. Its speed became zero within three seconds.

The report states that the T/A 912 authority was not issued with all the rules and regulations. The pilot was not issued a caution order. During the emergency, there was a lack of critical safety equipment like walkie-talkie and the station master failed to write the speed limit on the T/A 912 authority. However, there is no uniform rule for T/A 912 authority across the country. Due to which the pilots of different trains understood it in their own way and drove the trains. Similarly, something or the other was missing at many other levels which led to such a big accident.

What do experts say

Experts of this primary report of CRS say that it is clear that at least this accident did not happen due to the mistake of loco pilot alone. There were mistakes and omissions at many levels. Which caused the accident. Now the railway says that in this accident, the rules made in case of failure of automatic signal system were not followed. These rules are same across the country. The loco pilot of the goods train did not understand the authority properly. Whereas the pilot of Kanchenjunga train drove the train as per the rules and stopped at the red signal. But despite this, the railway has taken a big step and changed the authority form. So that no pilot misunderstands it. More training will be given to LP and ALP. Apart from this, whatever other necessary steps are there. All those will be taken.