Night time, confusion due to train on both sides led to death of 3 Railway staffers: Probe report

The committee has put the primary reponsibility on these factors and did not put any responsibility on anyone else for the incident that led to the loss of three lives. It, however, gave a set of nine recommendations for improvement while working on track to prevent such incidents in future.

The report recommends provision of secured pathways alongside the tracks and emergency refuge spots near vulnerable areas, along with nominating a lookout person during staff movement in yard for failures/maintenance. It also suggests recruitment of staff to tackle manpower shortage and exploration of technological solution with agencies for advance alert of approaching train for staff working in field.

In case motorman dims the light for coming train, there should be provision of fog/low-height lights on cab, for visibility to the staff on duty, and for reflection of retroreflective jackets, the report recommends.

The inquiry committee, comprising senior divisional signal and telecommunication engineer, senior divisional superintending coordination, senior divisional safety officer, senior divisional electrical engineer and divisional engineer, was constituted on January 23. It conducted site visits on the same day and further proceedings were conducted on three following days.

Confirming that the report has been submitted to him, Niraj Verma, DRM Mumbai, said, “We are examining the report findings and whatever recommendations have been given will be taken up seriously.”

The report also states claims of Witness No. 1 — motorman Rajaram Meena, who said that with the train speeding at around 90 kmph, he got very less time to alert the employees working on the tracks and blew horn as soon as he noticed them but despite applying emergency brakes, he couldn’t stop the train from running over them.

The committee, however, notes that it could not verify the claims of witness No 1 regarding blowing of horn from the cab data as the same has no digital records or any logging of the event.

Three employees of the Western Railway (WR) were killed after a local train ran over them on January 22, 2024, while they were fixing signalling point issues between Vasai Road and Naigaon on UP slow line. The deceased were senior section engineer (signal) Vasu Mitra, assistant (signal & telecom) Sachin Wankhede and signal maintainer Somnath Uttam Lambture.

Nine recommendations:

Provision of secured pathways alongside tracks and emergency refuge spots near vulnerable areas.

Lookout person to be compulsory nominated during staff movement in yard; staff to be hired if there is shortage

Provision of high-powered VHF set for utilisation during failure and maintenance

Seminar and workshops to sensitise field staff to depute lookout companions while working on running lines

Incorporation of suitable mechanism for recording front view from the motorman’s cab and event logging of horn operations and controlling of brightness of head light of the train.

Technological solution should be explored with agencies for advance alert of approaching train for staff working in field.

At the time of failure and immediate after rectification, sharp lookout to be advised with Km of location to all functional motorman.

Explore the possibility of companion for SI/ESM to be hired in suburban section, as they are engaged in failure rectification and maintenance.

In case Motorman dims the light for coming train, there should be provision of fog/low-height lights on cab, for its visibility to the staff working, and for reflection of retroreflective jackets.