Dozens Dead As Trains Derail On Flooded Tracks in India

Multiple casualties are feared after two trains derail on a river bridge, with carriages plunging into the water below

At least 24 people have died after two passenger trains derailed in India, with carriages plunging from a bridge into a river.

About 300 passengers have been rescued by divers using gas cutters, officials have confirmed, and 100 people are injured.

One of the trains, the Kamayani Express, was coming from Mumbai, while the Janata Express was travelling in the opposite direction.

The trains derailed while crossing a bridge in Madhya Pradesh state just before midnight local time, the railway ministry said.

Some carriages reportedly fell into the river below.

According to a former railway minister, the accident could have been avoided if the tracks had been properly maintained.

Last year, 25,000 people died in train crashes on the country’s outdated and overloaded railway network – prompting the Prime Minister to massively increase spending on improvements.

However, it could be years before the benefits of the modernisation works are felt.

A relief train carrying medical personnel and railway staff was on the way to the accident site, said an official.

“Rushing emergency medical and other relief personnel to spot. darkness, water creating hurdles but ordered all possible help. Trying our best,” Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted on Tuesday.

A railway spokesperson told local media that there was water on the tracks and the bridge was “submerged” at the time of the accident.

Railway official Anil Saksena said there had been flash floods in the region and the tracks had collapsed.

Saksena said at least two coaches had been partially submerged in a river.

While most people had been pulled to safety, rescue workers were still searching for trapped passengers.

Courtesy of Sky News

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Major train accident kills at least 34 and injures 50+ in Uttar Pradesh, India

Villagers, police and railway guards were trying to rescue passengers trapped in the coaches

A passenger train has derailed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 34 people, a railway spokesman told the BBC.

 

The engine and two carriages of the Janta Express, which travels between Dehradun and Varanasi, went off the rails near Bachhrawan village.

 

Several dozen people were injured in the accident, officials said.

 

Villagers, police and railway guards are trying to rescue passengers trapped in the carriages.

 

Images from the scene show mangled carriages lying beside the track.

 

The state’s junior railway minister Manoj Sinha said an inquiry has been ordered to find out what caused the accident.

 

India’s railway network operates 12,000 passenger trains and carries some 23 million passengers every day.

Dozens of people were injured in the accident on Friday

An engine and two carriages of the Janta Express went of the rails

One of the coaches was completely crushed

But there have been numerous train accidents in India in recent years, killing hundreds of people.

 

Last month, at least 11 people died after three coaches of the Bangalore-Ernakulam Intercity Express derailed in the southern state of Karnataka.

 

A BBC correspondent in Delhi says the state-run railway network has a patchy safety record – there has been little investment in upgrading decaying tracks and signals and the country lags behind on anti-collision technologies.

 

Decades of neglect, low investment and subsidised fares have left the network in a shambles, our correspondent adds.

 

In the railway budget announced last month, the Indian government unveiled plans to invest $137bn (£88bn) in the ageing railway network over the next five years to help modernise it.

Courtesy of The BBC News

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Trains collide injuring many in Switzerland

Rescue workers inspect the site of a train crash at the train station of Rafz, northern Switzerland. (Photo: AFP/Michael Buholzer)

Two trains slammed into each other near the Swiss city of Zurich early on Friday (Feb 20) tipping over carriages and injuring at least six people, police said.

 

The driver of one of the trains was in serious condition after the crash, which saw ambulances, fire and rescue services rush to the scene as a rescue helicopter hovered above.

 

A regional intercity train hit a commuter train at the Rafz train station, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Zurich and not far from the German border at around 6.45am (0545 GMT), police and media said.

 

One of the trains derailed, and several carriages tipped on their side. The locomotive was smashed in, with broken glass and twisted metal visible through a gaping hole in the side.

 

The police said the driver, 49, was flown to a hospital by helicopter. Five others were also hospitalised with relatively light injuries, the police said in a statement. One of the injured was an Italian, another was a Turkish woman and a third was a woman originally from Afghanistan. Two women of Swiss nationality were also hurt.

 

Switzerland’s national rail service SBB said the trains had been travelling in the same direction and that one had sideswiped the other where two tracks merge. “The circumstances of the accident are being investigated,” SBB said.

 

An 18-year-old passenger on the commuter train told the 20minutes daily the train had just begun pulling out of the station on its way to Schaffhouse when the driver hit the brakes. “An express train from Zurich came up from behind and hit the side of our train. The intercity train derailed,” said the unidentified man.

RENOWNED FOR SAFETY

Services on the train line between the towns of Bulach and Schaffhouse have been suspended until further notice. Buses have been arranged for areas where there is now no rail service.

 

SBB personnel, wearing fluorescent safety vests and helmets, were milling around the site, checking the damaged carriages. SBB said it had secured the tipped cars so they would not topple over completely. Equipment, including a railway crane, was brought to the scene to put the carriages back on the rails.

 

The Swiss are Europe’s top rail users, and their network is normally envied abroad for safety and quality. But a number of accidents have blemished that reputation.

 

In a dramatic incident last August, a landslide derailed a passenger train in the Swiss mountains, on a popular tourist route between the upscale Alpine resort of St Moritz and the eastern city of Chur.

 

One carriage plunged into a ravine and terrified passengers packed into the rear of another carriage to use their weight to prevent it tipping over the edge. Around a dozen people were hurt and one man later died of his injuries.

 

In Jul 2013, two passenger trains collided at a station in western Switzerland, killing one of the drivers and leaving 35 injured.

 

Switzerland counts 122 kilometres of rail lines on average for every 1,000 square kilometres – compared to only 46 kilometres on average in the neighbouring European Union. One million of Switzerland’s eight million people use the rails every day.

Courtesy of Channel NewsAsia

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Two trains crash killing at least 12 dead with dozens hurt in India

A train overshot a stop signal and plowed into another express passenger train in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, officials said Wednesday.

Three coaches of the Barauni Express derailed and toppled over after the Krishak Express crashed into it near Gorakhpur city station late Tuesday, said Madhuresh Kumar, an Indian railways general manager.

The bodies of 12 passengers were pulled out of the Barauni’s mangled coaches, he said, adding that 44 people from that train were hospitalized with injuries. The driver of the Krishak Express also was injured, but it was unclear whether anyone else aboard his train was hurt.

Railway services across northern India were disrupted, and several trains were diverted to alternative routes, officials said.

Passengers who were on the Barauni said the train was packed with construction workers who were returning home for the Hindu festival of Dusshera, which is Friday.

“There were more than 100 people in my coach and many of them were getting ready to get off at the Gorakhpur station, when there was this huge bang,” one of the passengers, Ramesh Chaudhry, said by phone from Gorakhpur. (AP)

“I was standing near the door when the engine of the Krishak Express hit the rear of my coach and it fell off the track. I fell onto a pile of luggage and was saved,” Chaudhry said. “But the person standing next to me did not survive.”

He said local villagers helped pull many people from the train, adding that police did not immediately arrive at the scene.

Gorakhpur is about 340 kilometres (210 miles) east of the state capital, Lucknow.

The driver of the Krishak Express and his assistant were suspended after it was determined that their train had overshot a stop signal before the crash, said Alok Kumar, a railway spokesman.

Experts will investigate whether the train overshot the signal due to mechanical failure or human error, the spokesman said.

Accidents are common on India’s railroad network, one of the world’s largest, with 23 million people riding daily on about 11,000 passenger trains. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

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Deadly train crash in South Korea

Train crashed, ferry accidents, shopping mall fires, South Korea had a hand full of issues recently reflecting the confidence in the travel and tourism industry to that country.

Korea has a very modern infrastructure, but today two passenger trains collided in South Korea on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring dozens, a hospital official and police said, in the latest in a string of accidents that has rattled the country.

A commuter train and a tourist train collided in Taebaek, a resort area about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of Seoul.More than 70 people had been injured, but declined to confirm any deaths.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has developed into a vibrant and technically advanced democracy, but faces criticism that regulatory controls and safety standards have not kept pace.

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Two trains collide causing multiple injuries in Durban, South Africa

At least 80 people were injured in a train collision near Berea in Durban on Tuesday evening, said South African officials.

The accident trains are passenger trains operated by Metrorail. The power line of the railway was shut down after the crash.

Emergency Service ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks told media that the passengers, sustained minor to moderate injuries, had been transported to various hospitals.

Metrorail spokesperson Dumi Dube said no death have been reported.

The investigation of the accident is under way. However Dube said the collision could have been caused by faulty signals on one of the trains.

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