Death toll in UP train accident mounts to 80

Rescue teams survey the scene of the rail accident at Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh yesterday. The death toll in the accident rose to 80 yesterday

The death toll in a train derailment in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh climbed to 80 yesterday with more than 350 injured in one of the worst rail disasters to hit the country’s troubled rail network in years, officials said.
Thirteen carriages of the Delhi-bound Howrah-Kalka express train were thrown off the rails in Fatehpur district on Sunday.
Rescue teams called in heavy-lifting equipment to move the damaged carriages, some of which mounted each other while others had been crushed almost flat.
Two Swedes were among the 80 killed, while a third was hospitalised, local official A K Pathak said from the scene. About 350 people were injured and taken to local hospitals, of which about four were in a serious condition.
“Sniffer dogs have been sent in to detect any bodies trapped under sheets of metal because it is physically not possible for search parties to enter,” Pathak said. “We think all the bodies have been removed now.”
He said the railway authorities “will now get down to restoration of the rail track, on which traffic was completely disrupted. The train was on its way from Howrah to Kalka, via Delhi. At least a dozen trains had to be cancelled while about two dozen were diverted.”
“It was one of the most serious cases of rail accidents in India,” said Sandeep Mathur, chief public relation officer of North Central Railways, who added an inquiry would be launched.
The rail disaster comes with the beleaguered administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh poised to make minor changes to his cabinet this week, counting on veteran finance and interior ministers to help battle policy paralysis and public graft.
Adding to the political heat faced by Singh - already reeling from a massive telecoms licence corruption scandal - was criticism that coalition ally Mamata Banerjee, who recently quit as railways minister, had neglected her core rail portfolio to concentrate on a local election campaign in West Bengal.
“The railway ministry has been functioning without any cabinet minister for about two months since Mamata Banerjee took over as West Bengal’s chief minister. This shows the lackadaisical attitude of the (ruling coalition) government towards people’s safety,” said Vijay Pathak, a leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh.
Anxious relatives and friends of the 1,000 passengers travelling on the train from Kolkata to New Delhi gathered at stations along the line seeking information about their loved ones.
Doctors at the main district hospital said 35 people were in a “serious” condition.
“The death toll could rise further as there is one coach which has been damaged so badly that the army is finding it hard to cut open using blow-torches,” an official said.
The reason for the derailment of the train, which was travelling at more than 100km per hour, was not clear and a probe had been ordered.
Local railway officials said the accident could have been caused by a fault on the rail tracks or if the driver had suddenly applied the emergency brakes.
The carriages had fallen across adjoining rail tracks, leading to a suspension of train services on the busy route.
Disconsolate survivors searched all night and were still at the site yesterday for some signs of life.
“I went to the hospital and have been running around the whole night looking for my brother,” a sobbing, 14-year old Shahana told reporters at the site. The accident left her mother dead and father with an amputated leg.
Minutes later, as she discovered that one of the bodies being pulled out by the army personnel was that of her brother, she became hysterical, “What will I do now, where will I go?”
Local villagers were the first to rush to the rescue of victims. Many passengers complained that relief came late and they had to fend for themselves for at least two hours before help arrived.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is acting railways minister, expressed “deep sorrow and shock at the loss of lives.”
On Thursday, 38 people were killed in another rail crash in Uttar Pradesh when a train slammed into a bus carrying a wedding party.
India’s state-run rail network - still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines - carries 18.5mn people daily.
The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.
The railway is the country’s largest employer with 1.4mn people on its payroll and it runs 11,000 trains a day.
Experts say the creaking system, the world’s second largest under a single management, is desperately in need of new investment to improve safety and help end transportation bottlenecks that threaten the country’s economic growth.