[ksameer1234]

I don't think I can add more perspective than what has already been said but would be glad if people attached slightly more value to their lives. When I first came across the flashing news, I thought this must be some inactive railway track where trains are commonly run or run infrequently. If not, then there is absolutely no reason for people to trespass on the railway tracks. No human can take a locomotive head-on and come back to tell the tale, I wonder how difficult it is to understand this. People should stop playing with their lives this way.

[Gildarts]

I sincerely hope that the engine driver is not sacrificed for political gain. I also hope no compensation is announced. People die everyday on our roads, some through no fault of their own. They don't get compensated by govt. Why should these suicidal idiots be considered victims and compensated?
Sorry for the harsh words, but really irritated to see people brazenly break rules and feel entitled to demand compensation for the consequences of their stupidity.

[damanbir]

I feel sorry for the loss of all those families, this is indeed a sad moment.

But what I fail to understand is that:

1. Why do the political parties need an excuse to pounce on to each other? In no time there were people from the opposing parties dissing the current government for these doings. Rather why can't everybody just come together and take the needful actions collectively. Be it be putting a ban on organizing huge gathering near high risk zones like railway lines, airports, busy highways or helping the families of the injured and deceased. Help is genuine even when provided in a silent manner, it need not bragged about all over in media.

2. The press/News should be publishing/broadcasting only on proofs and facts, and not on presumptions, assumptions or accusations just to gain readership or TRP(No intentions on hurting anybody's sentiments or work ethics here, it just my opinion, I may be wrong). NEWS should be NEWS.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The Times of India's headlines read, "Speeding loco ploughs into crowd"!. The fact is - "crowd trespasses onto express rail tracks and fails to move as train approaches".

This is an excellent point exactly what I meant to convey with my comment above, The words in a news should be chosen very wisely rather than just wanting to create a hype.

3. This might seem a bit off topic, but I feel is very much relatable to the incident.

This accident highlights a major gap in our social responsibility as a citizen. It is rightly said that schooling is only a part of the education one needs, the rest and majority if it comes from family and surroundings. I feel there is a major lack of self discipline and social sense in most of the general public. This is not specific to this incident alone, this I feel is a problem that prevails all over the country.

How many times do we see parents with children on bikes going the wrong way, people jumping lights with young kids in the seat in a car or a bike, not wearing a seat belt. People showing "THE HAND" and crossing when a bus or car is approaching, rather than People crossing the road when there is little or no traffic. These are small things that make a huge impact.

The younger generation is very observant and learns from all these examples.

Honestly, even when I see such mannerisms on the road, I chose to ignore it most of the times. Then i think Why? Is it wrong to correct somebody violating a rule?

With the increasing number of smartphone users, I feel there should be a platform (App Maybe) for every city(To start with atleast Tier1/Tier2), where one can upload images of traffic violators for the Police's review.

Also there could be a volunteering program, Hand in hand with the Traffic Police for Scouting violators or basic traffic management. It can

A similar strategy was adopted in Chandigarh a few years back, where people would post images onto the Chandigarh Traffic Police Facebook Page, and there would be legit Challans sent to the owner of the vehicle via the police.

Due to such awareness, People think twice before Riding without a Helmet, jumping the light, parking/stopping in a no parking zone or even crossing the zebra line. These are all violations and can be easily justified by a single photograph.

I Believe, It is my social responsibility to be cautious and safe on the road, and do not hesitate to correct those who are not.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

I was traveling from Udupi to Nizamuddin by Trivandrum Rajdhani once and on Konkan Railway, we were in a tunnel which itself was on a curve, the train hit a full size bull. It was around 3pm and maximum passengers were sleeping after lunch. The LP applied emergency brakes and many people fell down from berths including myself. People started screaming as we thought that train has derailed. It took over an hour for the people from railways to free the engine for train to move ahead. The train went ahead at around 50kmph speeds till Chiplun where engine was changed. There were few people who did sustain injuries. Mind you, these were the newer LHB coaches. Had it been the regular ones, it could have been a catastrophe.

Yes, for the loco pilot, the safety of his train and that of his passangers takes priority before the tresspassers on the track. To avoid hitting the tresspassers, he won't apply emergency brakes if it is going to risk the safety of his train and passangers.

[sgiitk]

The Congress is blaming it on the Railways. Also, I hear the train driver has committed suicide. I cannot see how he can be blamed for doing his job. If he had no advance information then he cannot be blamed.

What I can say I have lost any regard for the erstwhile Maharaja Patiala.

[selfdrive]

It is not as if the train driver took the train off the rails chasing people to mow them down. Nor was he doing higher than the prescribed limit, so there is no question of overspeeding. The track is built for the train, not for people to stand/ squat on.

I wish people realised that roads too are quite similar. The objective of a road is to transport people, not to be used for processions or as a market place or even a park to run around. With encroaching on roads, we lost civic sense and now by encroaching on tracks we have lost common sense.

Every day someone reminds me of this idiocy just by holding their hand up and crossing the road. They seem to be more confident of the braking ability of my vehicle than I myself am. It is high time some of the IT majors try to tap this genius method of getting an oncoming vehicle to stop with a gesture.

[JLS]

I second the view that individuals present on the tracks, who were too lazy to move away despite incoming train are to be blamed.

I do not agree with the the argument that crackers noise was louder than train horn and hence people could not hear train horn. Actually, when train is approaching, the tracks and surroundings vibrate and it is impossible to ignore that at a close distance. I believe people standing on tracks purposely chose to ignore common sense (of not standing on tracks ) and warning signs ( horn and vibration ) and could not take life saving action of moving 6 feet away.

Probably the mindset was that if they were standing on tracks, it is their right of way and train will stop for them.

Harsh it may sound, but I think it is the truth after looking at few news bits and comments on this thread.

[bigron]

An unfortunate incident however the railways is not responsible for this incident.
The act is very clear on this. The railways is responsible only for the people travelling on it as passengers or for an incident that is caused in areas where the train passes and there are no notice/markings/ unmanned crossings to inform the general public that a train passes from this area.
In-fact if a person travelling on a train gets his head out the door ( despite being told by the TC or any other official of the railways not to do so ) and is hit by a pole and dies, the railways will still be liable for compensation.
However in this case, railways is not at fault at any level.

[saket77]

People standing carelessly on railway tracks in pitch dark night and what were they expecting? I am at loss of words with such absence of common sense.
I do feel sorry for the departed and more so for their families but then more than an accident, this is leaning on the side of mass suicide.

Good to hear a clear and terse statement by the railways that they are not at fault and no inquiry will be ordered.

While Mr. Sidhu and many others are blaming the railways; I would like to hear their logic though.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Also, I hear the train driver has committed suicide.

Sir, that is certainly not true. Fake news doing rounds on social media. The loco pilot is in the custody of Punjab Railways undergoing investigations/ recording statements. However I wish, he is given proper counselling to overcome this mental trauma and character assassination by a few fronts.

Regards,
Saket.

[silverado]

We are all quite pained by what happened in Amritsar. The one question which comes to us is why were people standing fearlessly on tracks?

Was that a track that did not see a train for long time, untill the one that killed them?

Did trains run at a slower speed on that section, making people believe its ok to stand, we can move aside when train comes?

No one wanted to commit suicide, but this incident can be compared to numerous railway track deaths that we see in Mumbai on daily basis. Mumbai loses approximately 3500 people yearly to suburban trains and trespassing is one major reason.

A similar sort of incident had happened in mumbai, when people jumped from a train ( Due to some spark and rumors of fire ) on to adjoining track and got mowed down by train from opposite direction.

People for some reason get comfortable walking along tracks, crossing them, and even walking in between tracks. It becomes a part of daily routine for them and hence there is no fear in mind.

As can be seen from video, most people were not expecting a train to come at such a high speed, since there was a slower train which passed by few seconds ago.

[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by Gildarts

I sincerely hope that the engine driver is not sacrificed for political gain....snip... entitled to demand compensation for the consequences of their stupidity.

Actually they aren't or can't demand compensation (the dead)! Most often, these thoughts of compensation are actually planted by people with other (mostly vested) interests. Usually supplemented by "service" for easy disbursal.
Now, there were instantly FB and Whatsapp groups formed: in favor of victim or the perpetrator (irrespective of verdict : too late to be in public memory by the time there is any resemblance of a verdict).
Lucknow cop shooting case? Anyone?
I do not see any in this case, where actually, NGOs or rational people or even the drivers colleagues coming out and forming support groups for the driver who is definitely in mental trauma. While clearly being NOT at fault.
He might not man the controls of a train, ever! Could even be made a scapegoat. He is just an employee....no uniform, no bribes, no position misuse, but with the serious responsibility of the lives of a 1000 people at a time. Every day. And most probably as we will soon see, perhaps expendable too!

[Soumyajit9]

I find this channel covering the incident and explaining the facts very nicely.
Watch their other videos, which take a very nice unbiased view.
The audio language is in Hindi, apologies for non-Hindi speaking members.

(Note: I am not related to this channel or youtube in anyways, this just came up on my youtube feed).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdvys0A4pmg

[NiInJa]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Also, I hear the train driver has committed suicide. I cannot see how he can be blamed for doing his job.

No Sir, they are just false rumors floating on the internet. The driver has not committed suicide.

I might get a lot of flak for this, but the general attitude of us Indians has always been that the person in front of you should adjust to your behavior or actions, this is more evident in North India (there are exceptions of course). My in-laws are from Haryana and everytime I go there, I dread to sit beside my brother-in-law's car. As an example, he will drive his tiny car in the lanes of Bhiwani pretty fast, I ask him to slow down as there are pedestrians, his answer is 'log hatt jayenge gaadi dekhke, yahan ka system thoda alag hai' (they will slow down looking at my car, it works differently here). It betrays common sense and logic, but this attitude is prevalent in most people there. Heck, this was the same attitude when I was teaching my wife to drive once, she just wouldn't slow down at an intersection saying: 'they see my car clearly' (She acknowledges that she was wrong now)
I've understood this mentality from my in-laws, and I can say for sure that the attitude with which people stood on the tracks must have been: 'The train will have to slow down looking at so many people standing and all the fireworks anyway, so hum toh naa hatt rahe ji'

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by NiInJa

No Sir, they are just false rumors floating on the internet. The driver has not committed suicide.


I've understood this mentality from my in-laws, and I can say for sure that the attitude with which people stood on the tracks must have been: 'The train will have to slow down looking at so many people standing and all the fireworks anyway, so hum toh naa hatt rahe ji'

Totally agree with you. When there are so many people, the assumption is the train will stop. Happens when a bunch of people cross roads etc. Here the problem was if they could be seen given the conditions.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by srishiva

When there are so many people, the assumption is the train will stop.

And then what? Wait a couple of hours until the function is over? Yes, probably that is what they did expect.