In a short span of one week during July this year, eight passengers died in three different train accidents at the St. Thomas Mount Railway Station in Chennai.
An investigation carried out by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) K.A. Manoharan into the deaths has exposed how railway engineers were ignorant of the design specifications prescribed under the ‘schedule of dimension’ and allowed infringement of a concrete structure and steel pillars, thereby putting passengers travelling on footboards at grave risk.
Sources said that Mr. Manoharan had submitted his provisional findings along with certain recommendations to the Railways after enquiring into the circumstances that led to the train accidents at the St. Thomas Mount railway station on July 19, 23 and 24 in which eight passengers died and a few others were grievously injured.
The CRS probe was ordered after five passengers travelling on the footboard of a crowded suburban train were killed when they collided with a concrete fence as the train approached the station on July 24.
He categorised the accident under the heads: “error in engineering construction and maintenance” and “error in passengers’ method of travel”. Mr. Manoharan, however, said that the accident was caused “due to passengers hanging/leaning outside the coach, coming into contact with infringing concrete fence at St. Thomas Mount.”
