Trespassing & untoward incidents around railway tracks claimed 30,000 lives in 3 years

Nearly 30,000 people have died due to trespassing and untoward incidents around railway tracks in the last three years, Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said on Thursday. Sharing the figures at a virtual briefing, Yadav said that death statistics are maintained in three forms - consequential accidents, trespassing and untoward incidents.

Casualties are categorised under untoward incidents and trespassing, where around 29,000-30,000 people were reported dead in the last three years. The chairman said the Railways is trying to reduce this as well.

Yadav’s comments come after the Centre’s policy think tank NITI Aayog raised concerns over the Railways’ claim of zero deaths around railway tracks this fiscal year. In a letter to the chairman, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had said that over 2,000 people lose their lives in the Mumbai suburban network every year and such deaths should also be included in the records as trespassing.

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'Zero casualties this fiscal year'

The Railways had recorded 195 deaths in the fiscal year 2016-17, only 28 deaths 2017-18 and 16 deaths in 2018-2019, due to rain accidents such as collision, derailment, fire and other miscellaneous accidents. These numbers do not include trespassing and other untoward incidents around the tracks.

Over the last few years, the Indian Railways has taken steps to reduce the number of deaths due to accidents. Some specific changes include the elimination of manned level crossings in 2019-20, compared to 631 in 2018-19 (double of that done in last year), 1367 numbers of bridges rehabilitated, 285 numbers of level crossings (LC) have been interlocked by signals, etc.

A railway ministry spokesperson had said the national transporter has achieved zero passenger fatalities due to accidents last year. While the deaths of passengers due to railway accidents has become zero, unfortunate casualties do occur due to trespassing and untoward incidents like falling off trains or due to negligence of passengers. The spokesperson said that the Railways have little or no control on these incidents, but it is making efforts to sensitise the public on avoiding such situations.

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()Image credits: PTI)