The train accident at West Bengal's Siliguri that saw the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express being hit by a good train could have been caused by human error.
Jaya Varma Sinha, chairman and CEO of Railway Board, the reason could be signal disregard. "Prima facie suggests human error as the cause. The first indications suggest that this is a case of signal disregard," Sinha added while stressing the need for Kavach, an automatic train collision prevention system developed by Indian Railways, in West Bengal.
She added that the rescue operation had been completed. "The driver loco pilot who disregarded the signal has died. The guard of Kanchenjunga Express has lost his life. Help desks established at all railway stations along the Agartala-Sealdah route," Sinha said.
#WATCH | NDRF team are engaged in removing all debris from the Kanchenjunga Express train accident site in West Bengal
— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2024
(Video source: NDRF) pic.twitter.com/a4eGKCMr06
However, there are also speculations that the accident took place due to low visibility. Heavy rains had lashed the area, which even disrupted the initial rescue work.
The casualties were brought down considerably since two of the three derailed carriages of the express train were laden with goods.
The NDRF and SDRF teams have rushed to the site to remove the debris from the site, which is a major rail route.
Onlookers watch as rescuers work after a cargo train rammed into Kanchanjunga Express | AP
Images doing rounds on social media showed the pile-up, with containers from the goods train strewn on the tracks and one carriage nearly vertical in the air in the accident.
The accident has also brought to the fore the need to install Kavach system in India. The system is designed to prevent accidents caused by Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD), a leading cause of train collisions. The train's automatic braking system activates if the driver fails to control the train within the speed restrictions.
A successful trial of Kavach was conducted on March 4, 2022, between Gallaguda and Chitgidda stations of South Central Railway. The ministry claims that 'Kavach' is one of the “cheapest Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL-4) certified technologies with a probability of 1 error in 10,000 years.”
