Yet another railway tragedy
Friday, 1 October 2010
Again a tragic accident at an unguarded level crossing in Sayedabad area of the city took six lives and injured another 30 persons, eight of whom are in critical conditions. According to media reports, the level crossing here was not manned when the accident occurred. The gates were not down and out of two signalmen assigned for duty here, one simply did not show up there for duty on that day and the other was sipping tea in a nearby tea-shop leaving the crossing unguarded. This was not a case of one of rare accidents at railway level crossings in Dhaka city. Such accidents are noted at regular intervals -- on most cases, the signalmen are the culprits though on some occasions the pedestrians and vehicle-drivers attempt risky crossing ignoring signals. These accidents and the parade of deaths continue from the sheer neglect and lack of accountability of the railway authorities. According to the record of Bangladesh Railway (BR), a total of 55 people died in 2009 in train accidents. Of them 51 died in collisions with road traffic at the level crossings.
Not only at these level crossings, the problem needs to be realized as a serious one of safety of travel across the entire lengths of the tracks of the Bangladesh Railway. Run-down railway tracks, outdated signalling system, unguarded level crossings, frequent mechanical and human failures contributed to about 997 train accidents last year calling into question the safety measures of the Bangladesh Railway.
Information from the railway reveals that derailments have been overwhelmingly high over the last few years for poor condition of tracks but majority of deaths were caused by collision with road traffic at unguarded level crossings across the country. In 2009 there were about 868 derailments while the collisions with road traffic at level crossings were 62. The condition of the west zone is more vulnerable with about 634 accidents taking place last year.
The railway lacks approach warning signals and road signals at numerous level crossings across the country. At present, the country's 2855-km rail network has about 1,403 level crossings, of which only 210 are said to be manned round the clock. In the period between 2000 and 2009, a total of 5050 train accidents were recorded in the country.
Thus, the railway is increasingly coming into focus as a major source of accidents and deaths. The BR badly needs upgrading in all respects. Experts have suggested coporatisation of it with government retaining some forms of control while leaving day-to-day administration and planning to a more active and able BR management after its changing over into a corporate entity. Even full privatization has been recommended by some quarters as a way of BR's fast improvement. While these are suggestions to be considered, from the public perspective what is most urgent is attempting even under the present setup in BR, a shake up to ensure that maximum precaution would be taken to prevent recurrence of the sort of tragedy that occurred at Sayedabad on Wednesday. It cannot be that guards at such highly risky points like level crossing can remain off-duty or so uncaring if there is a mechanism with the minimum level of devotion to duty to monitor the posting and presence of the guards. Besides, an emergency programme needs to be implemented along with regular supervision to keep tracks in proper running conditions all the time. These are the minimum expectation of the travelling people from the BR as well as the government.
Not only at these level crossings, the problem needs to be realized as a serious one of safety of travel across the entire lengths of the tracks of the Bangladesh Railway. Run-down railway tracks, outdated signalling system, unguarded level crossings, frequent mechanical and human failures contributed to about 997 train accidents last year calling into question the safety measures of the Bangladesh Railway.
Information from the railway reveals that derailments have been overwhelmingly high over the last few years for poor condition of tracks but majority of deaths were caused by collision with road traffic at unguarded level crossings across the country. In 2009 there were about 868 derailments while the collisions with road traffic at level crossings were 62. The condition of the west zone is more vulnerable with about 634 accidents taking place last year.
The railway lacks approach warning signals and road signals at numerous level crossings across the country. At present, the country's 2855-km rail network has about 1,403 level crossings, of which only 210 are said to be manned round the clock. In the period between 2000 and 2009, a total of 5050 train accidents were recorded in the country.
Thus, the railway is increasingly coming into focus as a major source of accidents and deaths. The BR badly needs upgrading in all respects. Experts have suggested coporatisation of it with government retaining some forms of control while leaving day-to-day administration and planning to a more active and able BR management after its changing over into a corporate entity. Even full privatization has been recommended by some quarters as a way of BR's fast improvement. While these are suggestions to be considered, from the public perspective what is most urgent is attempting even under the present setup in BR, a shake up to ensure that maximum precaution would be taken to prevent recurrence of the sort of tragedy that occurred at Sayedabad on Wednesday. It cannot be that guards at such highly risky points like level crossing can remain off-duty or so uncaring if there is a mechanism with the minimum level of devotion to duty to monitor the posting and presence of the guards. Besides, an emergency programme needs to be implemented along with regular supervision to keep tracks in proper running conditions all the time. These are the minimum expectation of the travelling people from the BR as well as the government.