Unmanned Railway Crossings – realize the agony
The recent incidents of deaths of school children at unmanned
railway crossings at Kot Mehtaab near Baba Bakala, has put a big question mark
over the seriousness of railway authorities for the safety of people. Sikh Siyasat
sources who collected information from the spot of accident, informed that the
school bus driver has hearing problem. The school children shouted a loud when
they saw the train coming towards their bus, but the bus driver did not paid
attention.
Deaths at unmanned level crossings should be a cause for serious
concern for the railway authorities The Railway Ministry shows huge profits in
the budget but is not ready to bear the cost of manning the crossings. Does
anybody realize the agony of the family of those killed at unmanned level
crossings?
Despite number of deaths at the unmanned railway crossings,
neither the railway for making arrangements to man the unmanned railway neither
crossings nor drivers are serious while crossing. The graph of victims at the unmanned
railway crossings is on the rising trend but this have not moved the railway
authorities concerned as no positive steps have been taken to reduce such
incidents. At the same time, the
driver’s community has also not learned a lesson from the past accidents and
don’t bother to wait for a fraction of second to let the train pass. It is the driver on the roads can stop easily
stop whereas on the trail track, it is difficult to put a break which will be
too risky.
There are 509 unmanned crossings in Ferozepur Division, of which
68 have either been converted into manned crossings or eliminated but the
remaining 441 crossings still exist. By
the end of the year, 33 will be converted into manned crossings and in another
next three years 265 unmanned crossings will be manned by 2015. The railway plans to 72 crossings by
constructing diversions and permanently closing 29 unmanned where traffic low
is less than 500 vehicles in a day.
As
per the sources, there is also a plan to construct subways by eliminating the
crossings in the next three years plan at 25 locations. However, where high speed trains ply, there
is no unmanned crossing on the main lines while on the branch lines there are
many unmanned crossings.
While most of the deaths were reported due to the
alleged negligence of the drivers of vehicles trying to cross the unmanned
points, some victims were crushed while they were crossing the track on foot.
One such incident was reported from Tahli Sahib locality when Mohinder Pal was
crushed while trying to cross the Jalandhar-Amritsar track between Surnussi and
Kartarpur. He was on his way to fetch milk.
A majority of the mishaps on these tracks have
been those of school vans or buses. Drivers talking over mobile phones and
failing to notice approaching trains has been the common cause. Thus, the use
of mobile phones by drivers of school buses and vans should be strictly banned,
Indian Railways needs to review grey areas, be it signaling, track
replacement or the status of the rolling stock, especially the unmanned
crossings.
Accidents at unmanned crossings occur due to human error. It does
not mean the necessary steps to avoid mishaps should not be taken.
Another solution to avoid accidents at the unmanned railway
crossings is that these crossings should be attached with ‘red light signals’
on both sides from the nearest railway stations till such time these are manned
so that no vehicle or person crosses it till the light is green, as is done in
the US. The cost of installing these signals will be lesser than manning
the level crossings. If this system can work in the US, it can also work in
India.
There
is a need to create awareness among the people especially the driver’s class as
how to cross them by organizing seminars in educational institutions and by
calling the drivers community attached with schools, transport, truck unions
etc. The initiative taken by the
railways, to stage ‘nukkad nataks’ is appreciable but it needs to be made a
regular feature. Counselling camps at schools,
villages located near the rail track and special classes for drivers should be
held. Periodical medical check-up of eye-sight and hearing problem of the
drivers, which caused the recent accident near Baba Bakala, will be another
factor to help to reduce the rail accidents.
