Southern Railway is conducting surprise checks across the zone to ensure compliance with safety guidelines by Loco Pilots (Drivers) and Guards.
The initiative follows the recommendations of the Commissioner of Railway Safety Satish Kumar Mittal who enquired into the circumstances that led to the collision between two trains near Arakkonam on September 13 which left 11 passengers dead and several others injured, Railways sources said.
The driver of one of the trains was accused of crossing the signal in danger (red) and arrested by the Railway Police on the charges of culpable homicide (not amounting to murder).
After Mr. Mittal submitted his report to the Ministry of Railways, the Chief Safety Officer issued instructions to the Madras, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruchi, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram divisions that special safety drive and ambush checks be conducted to ensure that the loco pilots followed prescribed rules while passing automatic signals in danger.
Mobile phones
Officials in these divisions were also told to check whether drivers/guards kept their mobile phones in a switched off/silent mode during the entire journey. Instructions were given to nominate officers/supervisors to carry out the drive and take appropriate action whenever violations came to light, the sources said.
In his report, Mr. Mittal has stated, “After careful consideration of the factual, material and circumstantial evidence available, I have come to the conclusion that the collision was caused due to the Chennai Beach-Vellore Cantonment Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (MEMU) train passing the semi-automatic gate signal at ‘danger' without stopping and then proceeding at more than the prescribed speed.”
While categorising the accident as “failure of railway staff,” he said speed recorders of trains should be checked regularly by authorities concerned to detect violation of speed restrictions and also rules while passing signals in danger, the sources added.
