The Saturday’s train accident near Kuneru railway station in Komarada mandal of Vizianagaram district is the biggest so far under the Waltair division of East Coast Railway.
About 39 passengers were killed and over 50 injured when the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand express derailed near the signal cabin located close to Kuneru Railway Station on Saturday night at around 11.30 p.m.
The earlier major accident took place on November 2 in 2013, near Gotlam railway station in Vizianagaram district.
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It was a freak accident in which nine persons were killed on the tracks near Gotlam railway station, due to wrong communication by a passenger, coupled with some unfortunate coincidences.
Many commuters of Alappuzha-Dhanbad Bokaro Express jumped out of the train from the S1, S2, and S3 coaches as someone had spread a word that there was fire in the S1 coach. The nine persons were mowed down by the Rayagada-Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada passenger, coming in the opposite direction on the adjoining track.
But in the Kuneru accident, nine bogies of the train derailed, and most of dead were sleeping and were crushed to death.
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According to a senior railway official, the East Coast Railway had maintained a clean record so far. There were many accidents involving goods train. Derailment of goods train in the Kirandul line is common, as landslides is a regular affair on this line.
But never did we have an accident of such a magnitude, said the officer.
The other major accident was in June 2007, when three passengers were killed and about eight were seriously injured when Nagercoil - Howrah Gurudev Express, derailed near Duvvada Railway Station, close to Visakhapatnam city.