Last night in Tamil Nadu, the Mysuru-Darbhanga Express collided with a halted goods train near Kavarapettai, injuring at least seven passengers. At approximately 8.30 p.m. on Friday, the express passenger train entered a loop line rather than the main line and collided with the parked good train.
The severe accident caused the derailment of 12 bogies of the passenger train. One of the passengers described the mayhem, saying that no one knew what had happened when they heard the tremendous bang, and the train quickly flipped. As per PTI, the passenger quoted, “We were on the train when suddenly there was a loud noise, and no one understood what had happened. After about five minutes, when we looked outside, we saw the train had overturned, and there was complete chaos.”
He also added, “Some coaches were on fire, and others had derailed. We quickly went to a nearby local station. We are safe and unharmed.” Fortunately, no deaths were reported, but seven passengers were hurt, with three seriously injured being admitted to Stanley Medical College Hospital and four receiving treatment at Government Hospital, Ponneri. There were around 1,300 passengers on board, and all but the injured boarded a special train to Darbhanga on Saturday.
A high-level investigation has been launched into the occurrence. A M Chowdhary, Commissioner of Railway Safety, led a statutory inspection of the accident site, assisted by senior Southern Railway authorities. Southern Railway General Manager RN Singh described the crash, saying, “It wasn’t meant to stop here (Kavaraipettai station), thus it had to pass past it. After departing Chennai, this train received green signals.
The driver obeyed the signals appropriately, but the train should have taken the main line. Instead, it used the loop line at the switch, where the error occurred. But it is still unclear why the train did not enter the main line. The incident has disrupted rail timetables, with many trains rescheduled or rerouted. Track restoration work is still ongoing, with senior railway personnel overseeing the process.
Prior to boarding the special train, railway physicians performed medical tests on passengers. Ex-gratia payments were made to injured passengers in accordance with regulations. An investigation is under underway to discover the cause of the crash and prevent such incidents in the future.