More than 8,700 folks, lots of whom have been migrant staff, have been crushed on railway tracks in 2020 regardless of a extreme shutdown of passenger prepare companies because of the nationwide lockdown.
The Railway Board shared the information on the entire deaths between January and December 2020 below the Right to Information Act in response to a question by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandrashekhar Gaur.
“Based on the information received from the state police, between January 2020 and December 2020, 805 people were injured and 8,733 people died on railway tracks,” the Railway Board stated.
Officials individually stated that lots of the lifeless have been migrant staff who selected to stroll dwelling alongside the tracks as rail routes are thought-about shorter than roads or highways.
He stated the activists selected the tracks to keep away from the police and to not get in the course of the highway. “They had also assumed that no train would run due to the lockdown,” stated one of many officers.
Railway spokesperson DJ Narayan stated such incidents occur on tracks “not because of accidents but because of trespass”. “It is a civil difficulty of concern. Railways has at all times made nice efforts to sensitize the trespassers to keep away from strolling on the tracks. There are about 70,000 km of rail tracks unfold throughout the nation, with greater than 17,000 all varieties of trains operating every day. Death on the tracks of trespassers is unlucky and unhappy. Our concern for the protection of passengers and residents is a minimum of anybody else’s.
“Such accidents are probably more on roads due to careless road-crossings,” Narayan stated, including that no casualties have been reported as a result of any “train accident” within the final two years.
While the loss of life charge throughout 2020 was decrease than within the 4 years instantly previous it, the quantity continues to be vital as passenger companies have been restricted after the lockdown was introduced on March 25.
Only items trains have been working through the lockdown earlier than the Railways began Shramik Special trains to ferry migrant staff dwelling from May 1.
Passenger companies are being reopened in phases, and by December there have been round 1,100 particular trains operating together with 110 common passenger trains.
Services have now been restored at 70 per cent of the pre-Covid visitors.
While many deaths on the tracks went unregistered final yr, final May 16 migrant staff have been killed when a items prepare rammed into Maharashtra’s Aurangabad. They have been resting on the tracks considering that no prepare would run because of the suspension of Kovid.
According to railway information compiled from state governments, 56,271 folks have been killed and 5,938 injured in such incidents between 2016 and 2019. These deaths have been an growing development besides in 2017.
Statistics present that 14,032 folks died in such accidents in 2016, 12,838 in 2017, 14,197 in 2018 and 15,204 in 2019.
However, the railways doesn’t think about these deaths to be “railway accidents”.
Railway loss of life statistics are maintained in three varieties – consequent accidents, trespassing and untoward incidents.
These deaths fall below the class of “unpleasant incidents” or “trespass”, and are investigated by state police. Compensation can be given to the victims by the respective state governments.
Railways has launched a large drive to scale back such deaths and in some circumstances has additionally given ex-gratia to the households of the victims on the idea of sympathy.
The measures taken by the Railways embrace elimination of unmanned stage crossings on broad gauge community, sign modernization, use of contemporary machines in upkeep, and so on.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
