New Delhi: There was an increase in consequential accidents across the Indian Railways’ network in 2021-22, compared to the previous year, according to the New Indian Express.
Consequential train accidents are defined as incidents with “serious repercussion in terms of loss of human life, human injury, loss of Railway property or interruption to rail traffic”, according to the newspaper.
According to official data, nine were killed in train accidents in 2021-22 and 45 were injured. No loss of life or injuries were reported in 2020-21.
There were 35 consequential train accidents 2021-22, against 21 in 2020-21. Of these, 26 were derailments (16 in 2020-21), two collisions (one in 2020-21) and four incidents of fire (three in 2020-21).
Among the causes of the incidents, failure on the part of the railway staff led to 20 accidents and derailments rose in 2021-22, according to TNIE. Sixteen such instances were reported in 2020-21. There were also four cases of equipment failure in 2021-22, while there was none the previous year.
According to the newspaper, the railways paid a sum of Rs 85.88 crore as compensation under Section 124 of the Indian Railway Act for death or injury of passengers – which is less than the Rs 104.38 crore it paid in 2020-21. The railways said that the compensation paid during the year “relates to the number of cases settled and payment made during the year and not necessarily to the accidents that occurred during the year”, according to the report.
As The Wire has previously reported, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)’s analysis of railway accidents between 2017 and 2021 indicated that there were 2017 accidents, Of these, derailments accounted for 1392 accidents, or 69%. Among ‘consequential’ train accidents, the percentage of accidents caused by derailments and collisions was 80%.
The auditor also said that institutional problems, rather than ‘human error’, were causing the incidents. “The [Indian Railways] managed the maintenance activities with vacancies in work force and with nominal outsourcing. This revealed that required steps were not taken for adequate staffing in safety category, which can impact quality of maintenance,” the CAG report said.
The Hindu reported in June 2023 that in the Union budget, capital expenditure on “crucial activities related to safety such as track renewal and signalling and telecom” had either dwindled or stagnated over the last few years.