No action against the train driver will be initiated: MoS for Railways Manoj Sinha
On Saturday, Minister of State for Railways, Manoj Sinha said that no action will be initiated against the driver of the train that ran over the crowed during Dusserah eve as it was not the fault of Railways and advised the people to refrain from organizing the events near tracks in future.
Sinha said, “The incident was not a railways’ fault. There was no lapse on our part and no action against the driver will be initiated. People should refrain from organizing such events near tracks in future. I think if precaution had been taken, the accident could have been averted”.
Manoj Sinha ruled out any punitive action against the driver of the train that mowed down Dussehra revellers in Amritsar https://t.co/xE1OWnIPGE
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) October 20, 2018
When asked about the enquiry in the case the minister said, “There was a curve. The driver couldn’t have seen it. What should we order an inquiry about? Trains travel in speed only”. Railways have already declared that it was not at fault as it had no information about the event near track.
The Divisional Railway Manager Vivek Kumar said that driver tried to stop the train and brought down the speed to 68 km/h from 91 km/h, on application of sudden breaking a major accident could happen. He said that it takes time to stop the train running at a high speed.
DRM said, “People were trespassing the railway lines when the incident took place. Due to darkness and sound of firecrackers, the people could not hear the sound of train. The driver did not see the crowd earlier as there was a curve. The driver tried to apply brakes and minimize the speed to the train running at 90 Km/hour but it takes time to stop the train”.
He said, “At midsections, trains run at their assigned speed and people are not expected to be on the tracks. At midsections, there is no railway staff posted. We have staff at level crossings whose job is to regulate traffic”.
