[sandeepmohan]

In addition to the folks mourning the loss of life of their loved ones, the person forgotten is the locomotive pilot or driver. He/she will have sleepless nights and will suffer the most. There will be threats. One of the many stresses of being a locomotive driver on our network are run overs. Sometimes you are the one who has to pull out the dead body or whatever is left of it. In this case, it would have been several bodies. IR is not very pro active when it comes to the well being of their drivers. There isn't really a concept of providing mental stress relief or help from a doctor for situations like these.

In all this, I hope the driver is not blamed. The usual "why were brakes not applied" has already come up. As if a train can stop like a car.

[thorque]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

An article in my newspaper laments that nobody has been blamed yet. Enough of it always being someone, or something else's fault. It is easy to find someone to blame: the people on the railway line.

The media and politicians baying for blood,wanting desperately to gain political purchase and prime time fodder, are doing the nation a disservice.

This gory occurrence should've instead been used to educate our inherently witless junta,about the brutal consequences of acting irresponsibly.

The deity of 'natural selection' seems to have prevailed on a night,rife with fanciful allegory.

Amen

[sudev]

Such tragedy. Sorry for human loss.

Putting on my steel armour against flames......

Step 1 - Stop paying compensation to those dead on railway tracks unless it's established fault of railways

Step 2- Catch the injured and charge them with sections dealing with trespass and endangering the commuters

Step 3- Catch the organiser and put him under law for loss of life and compensation.

I know political ends means such hard steps would never be taken but they would happily dole out our money to victims. However in longer term this is only way people will learn.

[suresh_gs]

Assuming the loco pilot had applied emergency brakes (reports suggest he did reduce the speed from 90 kmph to 68 kmph) , considering that it was an express train it would have still run over the people. Navjot Singh Sidhu should know that stopping a car and train are entirely different.
With due respect to the departed souls, people have no business to trespass on the tracks. Hope the loco pilot is given counselling to get over this mental trauma.

[SCORPION]

As per latest newspaper reports the locals are demanding action against the driver for not stopping. The driver says he applied emergency brakes, but did not stop because the public started pelting stones at the train and he continued to the next station fearing the safety of his passengers. Eye witnesses say there was no stone pelting and now the drivers integrity is a question mark. Poor fellow. Frankly, looking at the video, it doesn't seem like any attempt was made to slow down. The train just zipped past. I might be wrong, but that is what it looks like in the videos. The train, IMO, seemed (let this not lead to an argument here) to flash past at great speed. Not that an attempt to slow down would have changed things in anyway.

The locals also want action against the organizers. But why should someone, other than the victims themselves, be blamed for this? Shouldn't common sense and your will to live tell you that you will not survive an encounter with a train if you stand in it's path?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

An article in my newspaper laments that nobody has been blamed yet. Enough of it always being someone, or something else's fault. It is easy to find someone to blame: the people on the railway line.

I see a problem there. If they cant find someone to blame, the train will be blamed. Seeing some of the recent rulings as a result of knee jerk reactions, to treat a symptom and not the cause, I can see the railways being told to make their trains pedestrian friendly. Or tresspasser friendly, to be precise, and, a new provision in the law to put the blame squarely on the driver for not stopping in time to avoid such fatalities.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Fortunately the railways have kept heir head and stated no action will be taken against he driver who was driving at his assigned speed of 91 kmph.

That is excellent news - that he was operating his train correctly, and that no action will be taken against him. It is extremely reassuring to see that they've taken a level-headed decision, and are not swayed by the emotion of the moment.

I do hope they offer him counselling and support, because the knowledge that he was in the right will in still no way diminish his feelings of having been involved in the deaths of several people.

I think a lot of the media are failing to understand one thing - the railway lines are the property of the INR, and they have absolute right of way on it. When we walk across the lines, we are trespassing on their property. And the rules applied on a highway to vehicles of "being prepared to stop due to road incursions" doesn't generally apply to trains - otherwise all trains will have to chug at 20 km/h, and our economy will grind to a halt.

Polemics aside, what ever happened to self preservation? Has our Indian mentality of "it's not my job" extended to that as well?!

[avanishphatak]

Biker dies after the head hits the kerb without helmet
Car crushed when driving on a wrong side of a highway
People killed as train runs over them on the track
- Aftereffects of ignoring Safety Protocols.

I feel sorry for the people who are deceased in the tragic event.
We shouldn't forget that there is a law, of trespassing on railway tracks.
A common sense that trains are fast, big, heavy and take a predictable route. If there is a track, a train will arrive there. Most people standing there are grown ups, educated mostly (read and write) watch TV, and see zillion warnings on TV given by the Govt departments on rail safety.

There is a reason safety protocols are to be followed for the greater good. Violating them will cause only harm. Hard but the truth, is that the people are responsible for their own situation in this case.

It all leads to one point. Common Sense and Civic Sense.

[Digvj]

It was result of utter negligence by deceased coupled by following facts

1. Most of the people were trying to record the event with camera phones trying to capture better view of the burning of effigies rest were dazed looking just to their front and not on the left side from where the train was approaching at such a speed

2. Loud noise of crackers made it impossible to hear approaching train untill it was too late and as we know it was well traveling at 91kmph or 25.27 meters per second. Too fast for most of the people to react and get away from the tracks

3.Organisers has put up large LCD screens facing towards the tracks and there was delay due to late arrival of chief guest (no prize for guessing that) with no emphasis or security arrangements beyond the wall that separated the ground and the tracks that would alert the crowd to not sit/stand on tracks which of course makes no sense but for most of not so privileged who are educated its the only way

4. No intimation by the organisers to the railways for possible hazard on track as confirmed by the DGM INR in his interview

5. The sheer misfortune of timing of burning the effigy and passing of train and probably the mindset of the deceased that the event would just last few minutes and its just alright to stand on tracks like others with assumption no train would come fast enough (mob mentality)

However, it is evident that despite of any of above that does not give anyone the liberty to sit or stand on railway tracks and as just proved to be suicidal. Every other day, I do see photographs of many victims published in newspaper by police for identification of dead who get killed on railway tracks but despite knowing the danger people still trespass and think it is just alright to walk on the tracks or cross the unmanned gates.

Whatever may be the case but its been a very sad state of affairs as organisers, politicians, administration, police and railways trying to get away with their ignorance but no where ever in the world this sort of accident would have happened in my humble opinion.

[spanner777]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

In addition to the folks mourning the loss of life of their loved ones, the person forgotten is the locomotive pilot or driver. He/she will have sleepless nights and will suffer the most. There will be threats. One of the many stresses of being a locomotive driver on our network are run overs. Sometimes you are the one who has to pull out the dead body or whatever is left of it. In this case, it would have been several bodies. IR is not very pro active when it comes to the well being of their drivers. There isn't really a concept of providing mental stress relief or help from a doctor for situations like these.

In all this, I hope the driver is not blamed. The usual "why were brakes not applied" has already come up. As if a train can stop like a car.

This is so true. The individual who is the driver would need counselling to come back to normal life after an incident like this. Depends on the person on where the undeserved feeling of guilt (for an incident one could not avoid) would take him/her. As an employer, the IR's stance gives a lot of comfort.

Being in the night, with the limited visibility, the driver had applied emergency brakes and managed to stop the train post the accident spot.

As I read in one of the twitter posts : Railway tracks are not stadium stands.

[The Observer]

This is such a heart wrenching tragedy and so many lives lost that too while they were celebrating.

I would squarely blame the organizers who cared two hoots about public safety and organized this near railway tracks - without alerting the railways nor thinking about what could have been the repercussions of crowds spilling over. Heck the sparks from the effigy could have also fallen on some fuel trucks or diesel carrying locomotives and started a huge fire !

Coming to the poor engine driver , i can only imagine what it feels to be at the helm of a machine that took so many lives. Do you think he is not feeling traumatized himself ? It is so mindless to see knowledgeable people blame the engine driver and the railways. The ambient noise of the engine itself is so high that he would not hear other noise plus the darkness around, how in the whole world would he just know that there would be so many people on the tracks ? Also if he did brake - you can imagine what will happen if you hard brake a locomotive at high speed !

Hope sense prevails and the organizers reflect on their mistake instead of finding some easy scapegoat. Families who lost their loved ones - there are no words to console them. Public safety needs a "me too#" type movement, in India there is scant regard for human life.

[Nalin1]

I feel sorry only for the family members of the victims. Absolutely not for the victims themselves who were on a suicide mission.

Standing on the railway track meant they were only going to be safe if a train does not cross! Standing on the tracks and hoping that trains like vehicles on the road will first honk, then slow down/stop or swerve around them?

[gkveda]

Were these deceased people blind (so that they could not see the Head light of the engine) or deaf(so that they could not hear the honking OR engine sound of such a large train) ? Not even one single soul could see or hear the train? Really surprising.

Or did the train move out of the tracks and come on roads to kill these people intentionally?

Why and how so many people concentrated on the event and shooting the event on their mobiles ignoring the train?

Now a days, even Cattles have gained intelligence. They move away when they see a car coming in their direction on Roads.

This is just beyond my imagination to believe. Whenever I saw pedestrians walking on middle of road with their mobiles attached to their ears, I used to think that Mobile phones are converting human beings(Homo sapiens) into Cows(Bos Taurus). This is a Scientific evidence of my theory

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by The Observer

I would squarely blame the organizers who cared two hoots about public safety and organized this near railway tracks - without alerting the railways nor thinking about what could have been the repercussions of crowds spilling over.

From my admittedly little reading...

Crowds did not spill over. Organisers made several announcements that people should come there as there was plenty of room. There was a wall between the tracks and the event. People chose to go to and stay on the tracks. Organisers can't be blamed for that. If I am misinformed please let me know.

Otherwise, I cannot see that anybody is to blame other than the individuals who stood in the way of the train.

[DRIVE_ADDICT]

Though a slight OT but relevant in most cases, As few pointed here, the chalta hai attitude we developed over the recent period of time is way too much. I for one believe two generation before this much amount of chalta hai attitude was not there.

This attitude came in because of selfishness and this selfishness increased to a greater extend after globalization, which makes your Desire turn into your Need.

Only when we get affected by other's chaltha hai attitude we shout, otherwise we all will go with the same attitude.

Recently saw this movie "U-Turn", a famous kannada movie which revolves around a plot, where people who violate and takes a U turn at a particular over-bridge and all of 'em get killed mysteriously which looks like a suicide, later gets resolved towards climax. If something of sort happen in real then people might change.

We are not fit for democracy, we need caning (Period).

[BoneCollector]

The driver did give a statement immediately post this tragedy. Like I said earlier, it's really difficult to stop a train when it's momentum is high. His statement gives an idea of what happened. One cannot say that he is 100% correct but then, railway tracks are not for people to stand.

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.