At least 10 coaches of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express overturned Thursday afternoon in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh after the train derailed from the tracks. Even as the cause and the number of injured were yet to be known, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed immediate deployment of rescue and relief personnel at the spot. Let's have a look at the recent train accidents that took place in India 1) July 2024: Hazarduari Express collides with two cars at Bengal railway crossing A passenger train collided with two cars at Khardah Railway Station on last Sunday night, narrowly escaping a major accident. The Hazarduari Express had been heading towards Kolkata as two vehicles drove onto the track, striking the back of an SUV before managing to stop, while the SUV itself hit the other car. Train services were disrupted for roughly 40 minutes while the locomotive was inspected, after which its journey successfully resumed. Khardah police and the railway police reached the spot. 2) June 2024: Kanchanjunga Express accident in West Bengal At least 10 persons were killed and minimum 40 injured after the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express from Agartala was hit by a goods train from the rear in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, 11 km from New Jalpaiguri station on June 17, 2024. The dead include seven passengers, the loco pilot of the Amingaon (Assam)-Jharsuguda (Odisha) goods train, and another Railways staffer. The trains collided at the speed of 40 kmph. The loco pilot of the freight train that was travelling at 78 kmph tried to hit the emergency brakes when it spotted the Kanchenjunga Express up ahead but could not prevent the crash — that’s what a probe report of the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS) said as it recreated the final moments before the accident. Failure of automatic signal, lapses at multiple levels in managing operations, and non-availability of critical safety equipment such as walkie-talkie with the loco pilot and train manager are some of the reasons cited for collision. 3) June 2023: Balasore Coromandel train collision in Odisha Three trains — Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train — were involved in a pile-up on June 2 2023, which was described as one of India’s worst train accidents. The Coromandel Express rammed into a stationary goods train and many of its carriages overturned including some onto another train – the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express which was also passing by at the same time. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargesheet against three railway employees in connection with the train accident recently in which 293 people lost their lives. A parallel investigation conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) held “multiple levels” of staff at the Signalling Department responsible for the accident. According to the CRS report, the three signalling staff who were arrested earlier, were at the Bahanaga Bazar railway station on the day of the accident, carrying out replacement of an Electric Lifting Barrier (boom barrier) at level crossing no 94. The CRS report said faulty labelling of wires at the location box caused signalling error that led to the Coromandel Express entering a loop line before ramming into a stationary goods train. 4) January 2022: Bikaner-Guwahati Express On January 13, 2022, 10 passengers were killed and more than 40 injured after 12 coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express derailed in the Domohani area of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district. According to the CRS, the cause of the derailment was “Failure of equipment (locomotive)”.
