Scarred by her experience aboard the Howrah-Dehra Dun Doon Express, two coaches of which caught fire in the early hours of Tuesday, 57-year-old Minoti Sarkar, was horrified at the prospect of ever boarding a train again. “Oh! not again,” she exclaimed.
Ms. Sarkar, who along with three family members, was going for a vacation to Haridwar, jumped off the air-conditioned B1 coach, smashing her chin and sustaining injuries in lower limbs.
But more than her injuries, she was stunned by what she had to face during the journey.
“I heard voices of kids in the compartment shouting maa, maa [mother, mother]. Two young men tried to save the kids but they could not…There was another man crying for help,” she toldThe Hinduwhile being administered first aid at the Howrah station in the afternoon, shortly after the train carrying 11 injured passengers arrived nearly 14 hours after the AC coaches of the Howrah-Dehra Dun Express turned into an inferno.
Ms. Sarkar, a resident of Raiganj in the State's North Dinajpur district, was woken by loud shouts and screams.
“Initially I thought it was dacoits, but then we heard screams of fire and a thick smoke engulfed the entire compartment. I could not understand which way to go,” she said.
She said she and her family waited for four hours at the accident site before they could board the next train to reach the nearby Gomoh station.
“A woman was in flames in front of my eyes. I tried to save her,” Chedi Shaw, another survivor said, showing his scorched fingers.
“The passengers we treated have simple injuries but are suffering from psychological shock and mental agony,” said Dr. A.K. Saha, Chief Health Director of Howrah, who attended on the injured at the station.
Sunil Ranka and his wife Lakhi Ranka, residents of Contai in State's East Midnapore district, lost all their belongings.
“We were in the B1 coach. When the fire occurred, we ran to B2 and then to B3 then we jumped off the train,” said Mr. Ranka who managed to reach the Howrah station with his wife on their own at 11.30 in the morning.
Amid all this, there were some who were desperately searching for or awaiting news of their relatives and acquaintances late into the evening.
Keywords: Train fire, Howrah-Dehradun Express, Doon Express fire
Fifty years ago our railways worked -= the chains worked, the toilets were spotless and they ran on time. As years went back services went down the drain. Surprising? Not really when you had Laloo then Mamta as railway ministers - both interested in their political carreers. Even the PM sits dumbstruck incapable of any action. I am a travel agent and generally warn tourists of taking an overnight or long rail journey in India. The maximum perscribed is the Shatabdi. But look at the loos, they are filthy. And my warning foreigners to avoid rail journeys as well as certain by road will continue because of the danger to lives.
Shocking and painful. I can almost hear the voices of the kids calling out their mothers in vain. The Railways cannot ever escape the blame and it's failure to protect it's innocent passengers.
How would you improve the services of IR, when ticket are sold at with big subsidies. IR is the cheapest mode of transport in India. For AAM ADAMI, Ms Mamata wanted to sale tickets almost for free, but never bothered about safety of passengers. Dead people do not vote my friend! For a 1000 km journey you may pay less than Rs 400/-! Do not expect safe, clean and good services. Under the name of social justice people like Mamata are exploiting innocent people and none is getting any benefits expect Mamata getting votes. Now she will repeat her magic tricks in Bangal, good luck citizens there!!!
And this is why the senior railway officials and the ministers do not travel by train themselves. they all fly at the cost of taxpayers. no incentive for fire safety, no reason to do anything about any of their assigned roles and responsibilities.
It is shocking incident and only goes to show how ill-prepared the railways are for mishaps of any kind. The death of a foreign visitor will only worsen the shoddy image of India's public administration and general safety measures in the eyes of other countries.
Every alternate day, we heard the train accidents but no political will seems to be present to avoid such accidents. It's an irony that we indians with every kind of expertise (our expertise used by foreigners) will never concentrate in avoiding them instead we concentarte on buying new trains, increasing fares............. but not on how to improve the services by considering the existing resources.
As fellow Indian and commuter of public transportation, my heart goes out to the victims and their families. An incident as this is yet another reminder to us to opens our eyes towards the apathy with which Indian Railways have been run and maintained in last 50-60 years. It is not uncommon to find cockroaches and mice in Indian railway compartments. The standard of maintenance, cleanliness and regular upkeep of compartments is perhaps the worst compared to any railway service in the world. Like many other incidents before of derailing, midway collisions, this incident will also be handled by the Indian Railway ministry and Board by declaring a committee to investigate and report the issue. Also declare say 5 Lac rupees of compensation to family of the victims. No Rail Minister or Railway Board Chairman has initiated a program to phase out these outdated coaches and embarked on developing new age coaches with efficient berth design, control of amenities and good service.
Hind sight is better than foresight. I am not trying to project smarter than the victims of the tragedy. However from what I have read in the past when there is fire and smoke one should cover the body with wet clothes and crawl on the ground level instead of trying to walk erect. I hope The Hindu and its readers make appropriate time tested advice to be followed by potential victims in fire disasters in the future. In the schools in USA all the students are taught appropriate actions to be taken in case of fire and such other disasters. Thus even young children know more than I do in those regards. My sympathies are with the victims in the train disaster.
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