The Hindu : Traps on the track

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Traps on the track

Unsafe behaviour while crossing tracks or using them as walkways, poor lighting and lack of safety consciousness among railway personnel are causing accidents, says S. Shivakumar.

For those who survive rail accidents, life is never the same again. Tragedy struck V. R. Thirupurasundari, a final year polytechnic student of the SRM College, on July 28, 2000. She suffered serious injuries after being hit by a train while walking along the track at the Potheri station.

She was returning home along with a friend. They were walking along the track, which was usually deserted, when a train knocked them down. Her friend was killed on the spot, while Thirupurasundari continues to be bedridden.

Recalling the incident, Thirupurasundari's father, P. V. Ramalingam, says: "More than the accident, what I cannot digest is the treatment given to my daughter by a hospital at Tambaram when she was rushed there. The hospital insisted that unless money was paid upfront they would not treat her. Valuable time was lost as my daughter's friends pooled in money and arranged for the ambulance".

The recent accident in which two youths were killed and five others injured after they allegedly hit a damaged signal ladder while travelling on a BG EMU between Nungambakkam and Chetput turned the spotlight on the problems of safety: the general attitude to safety among the passengers themselves, the official efforts and the emergency response system.

On an average at least three persons are admitted everyday to government hospitals with injuries sustained while crossing a railway track or travelling in a train. Of these, at least two prove to be fatal. Last month alone 35 persons were admitted to the Government General Hospital alone with injuries caused on the railway track and about 30 of them succumbed to injuries, hospital sources said.

Enquiries reveal that most of the injured are brought to the hospital in autorickshaws or other locally available modes of transport. "As these accidents occur mostly at desolate areas even if ambulances are alerted there is a problem in identifying the accident spot. Moreover, it is also difficult for the paramedical staff to reach the area to pick up the victims. Thus, usually co-passengers carry the injured to the nearest road and transport them to hospital in autorickshaws".

Even in the Wednesday's accident some of the injured were shifted to hospital in an autorickshaw.

Apart from falling off trains, casualty is higher among those crossing tracks or walking along it. For instance, four young engineers were knocked down in the early hours a few years ago while crossing the track close to the same spot where two passengers died on Wednesday. These youth in their early twenties had come from Andhra Pradesh and had been staying in a hostel on Harrington Road. In the early hours, they took a short cut via the track to reach the Nungambakkam railway station when they were knocked down.

Even as a public hearing is slated for Saturday at the Southern Railway Headquarters on the Wednesday's accident, railway personnel charge that the accident was triggered because the victims were travelling near the entrance, exposing themselves to a grave threat. But how an EMU crossed a point with a signal ladder that was dangerously close, perhaps even bent and leaning into its path, is not clear.

Passengers leaning out of EMUs has become a nationwide phenomenon, owing to the inadequacy of transport and poor planning of urban development, especially along suburban corridors. In some cases, youth are found leaning out of the entrance of a train (as they do in buses) simply for a "thrill." Failure to penalise such behaviour for political considerations, has led to a spate of casualties.

Elias Degiannis, a professor of surgery from South Africa, with expertise in trauma care, who is in the city to hold a `trauma management course', says: "Train accidents should be tackled in a three-fold manner. In most developed countries the rescue team, which rushes to the accident spot, comprises doctors, firemen and paramedical staff, all trained in trauma care. This ensures the best possible medical help in an emergency".

"There are sufficiently trained doctors here for handling trauma cases. Their services can be utilised for training paramedical staff, police and fire service personnel", he added.

Unsafe behaviour while crossing tracks or using them as walkways leads to accidents, but so does poor lighting and lack of a safety consciousness among the railway personnel. Though a more professional system compared to the bus transport corporations, modernisation of railway coaches to prevent "outhanging" passengers, better alarm and communication systems even in urban environments remain neglected.

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