HYDERABAD, India, 3 July 2003 — Eighteen people died yesterday when the engine and two carriages of an express train plunged off a bridge in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, crushing people on a bustling street below, officials said.
Twenty-one others were injured when the Golconda Express packed with commuters jumped the rails in the city of Warangal, said Frederick Michael, spokesman for the railway.
The train was apparently moving on the loop-line, which had a dead-wnd. The driver overshot the signal and in his haste applied sudden brakes triggering the derailment.
Warangal police Superintendent Nalin Prabhat said 12 people, among them two women and a child, died in the two carriages that fell from the bridge, while six others were crushed to death when the engine fell on them.
The bodies were brought out from a jumble of mangled coaches, scooters and three-wheeled taxis which had been squashed by the engine. One of the carriages was still dangling dangerously from the bridge, eyewitnesses said.
“The toll is expected to go up as we still have to move the engine. Some bodies are visible under it but we fear there could be more,” said Prabhat. Warangal is some 140 kilometers (86 miles) northeast of Andhra Pradesh’s state capital Hyderabad. Rescue efforts were hampered at first by an unrelated political protest in the area and then by heavy monsoon rains.
“It is not possible to say who was traveling in what,” added a rescue worker, pointing at the engine which was partially covered by rainwater and a mountain of blood-smeared steel. A roadside tea vendor who survived the freak accident said his shop narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling train. “I think it is a miracle I am still alive. We were just standing around when suddenly the sky seemed to explode over our heads,” said Kishan Balu.
Officials said the accident happened at 10:25 a.m. (0455 GMT) when the train, traveling from the southern town of Guntur, applied its emergency brakes after missing a red signal, leading to the derailment of its engine and two coaches.
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar blamed the accident on the train driver, who survived the crash with injuries. “It seems the driver of the train ignored the signal and overshot, as a result two to three coaches derailed,” Kumar said.
It was not the first accident at the Warangal bridge. In December 1991, a freight train derailed and crashed on the road below, killing seven people, other officials said.
The derailment is the latest accident to hit India’s antiquated state-run railways, which carry 13 million passengers daily. A safety study was conducted following the September 2002 crash of the country’s prestigious Rajdhani Express, which placed a question mark on the stability of 60 percent of local rail bridges, most of which were built by the British before 1947. In April the state-run utility promised an upgrade, earmarking a sizable chunk from its budget of 106 billion rupees ($2.20 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2004.
Federal Minister of State for Railways Bandaru Dattatreya visited the site of the accident and also the MGM Hospital in Warangal. He announced an ex-gratia of 100,000 rupees to the kin of the deceased, 15,000 rupees for those grievoiusly injured and 5,000 rupees to those sustaining simple injuries.
(Inputs from AFP)
