Drivers Watching Cricket Caused Andhra's 2023 Train Crash
Railway Minister blames Andhra Pradesh train crash on distracted loco-pilot and co-pilot watching cricket during duty.
In October 2023, a passenger train going from Visakhapatnam to Rayagada collided with another train, Palasa Express. The big collision resulted in the death of 13 people and left more than 50 people severely injured. ISH has released a video covering the news. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHKfJzk_eE
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently gave an update on the accident. He announced that the collision occurred because the loco-pilot (driver) and the co-pilot (assistant driver) of one of the two passenger trains were distracted because of watching an ongoing cricket match on their phones. According to reports, India was playing against England in the ODI World Cup on the day of the accident. He further added that the Railway will now install systems that can detect any such distraction and make sure that the pilots and the assistant pilots are fully focused on running the train. He also assured that Indian Railways' prime focus is safety and said that it tries to find the root cause of every accident and come up with a solution so that it is not repeated. The official report by the Commissioners of Railway Safety (CRS) on the accident is yet to be released. But according to the initial investigation conducted by the railway authorities immediately after the accident, the loco-pilot and co-pilot of the Rayagada Passenger train were at fault for this collision. They both had ignored two defective auto signals. Both crew members also lost their lives in the accident. In another Indian Railways’ shocking incident, a goods’ train going from Kathua station in Jammu and Kashmir to Hoshiarpur district in Punjab traveled 84 km, around 2 hours, without its drivers on 25th February 2024. According to the railway officials, this unusual incident happened between 7.25 am and 9 am, when the train had halted at the Kathua station for a driver change. The train started moving, with no one at the controls, after the engineers forgot to engage the brakes when they got down at the Kathua station to have tea. The goods train was running at a speed of over 100 km per hour. Railway officials and staffers along the route were put on alert. A video of it passing by a railway station at a very high speed went viral on social media. The train was brought to a halt near Ucchi Bassi railway station in Mukerian, Punjab with the help of wood blocks & sand bags. The officials announced that no damage or casualty was reported. The Indian Railways has terminated the 4 employees in connection with this incident.
ISH has released multiple videos on the tragic Odisha train accident too. You can watch them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHU8E-NAdY
