Railway Staff Error Caused 55% Train Accidents from 2017-22, Derailment in 75% Cases in Last 6 Years

Error by railway staff caused 55 percent of the train accidents between 2017-18 and 2021-22, shows data from the Commission of Railway Safety. Moreover, 75 percent of the accidents between 2017-18 and 2022-23 were attributed to derailment.

News18 analysed data from the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) and Ministry of Railways, which also shows that in 2021-22, about 43 percent of the train accidents were due to “error in working by railway staff”. Including road users, passengers and miscreants, about 55 percent of the accidents were due to human error in 2021-22. In 2020-21, this was about 73 percent.

Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, the share of train accidents attributable to error in the working of railway staff varied from 43 percent to 65 percent – with the highest in 2019-20 and lowest in 2021-22. Further, the five-year average stood at about 55 percent, data shows.

The share of train accidents due to human error in total mishaps varied from 55 percent (in 2021-22) and 89 percent (in 2018-19). The average for five years shows that about 75 percent of the train accidents were due to human error.

Derailment takes biggest chunk of train accidents

News18 also analysed data from the CRS that highlighted the main causes of train accidents. Between 2017-18 and 2022-23, there were 292 train accidents of which 220 were derailments – accountable for over 75 percent of the total mishaps.

Derailment was followed by fire, which was the reason behind 28 mishaps, shows data from the CRS and Indian Railways.

Drop in mishaps from pre-Covid times but rising after 2020

The total number of train accidents across India has dropped in the post-Covid world as compared to before. But in the last three years, there has been a rise again. In 2020-21, there was complete suspension of all passenger trains from March 22, 2020, due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Since May 2020, there was partial resumption of some 230 trains but overall traffic was low resulting in fewer accidents. The next year, 2021-22, was also affected by the coronavirus but there was no complete lockdown and train services were not fully suspended. Although, it was impacted.

In 2021-22, there were 35 train accidents that increased to 48 in 2022-23. Casualties, however, have dropped drastically from 17 in 2021-22 to eight in 2022-23, as per ministry data.

On June 2, the triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore, including two passenger trains, claimed 288 lives with over 1,000 injured. It is being called one of the worst train accidents in two decades. The CRS and the CBI are investigating the main cause of this accident.