Andhra Train Collision: ‘Driver Was Watching Cricket On Phone’, Says Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
Amaravati: The driver and the assistant driver of one of the two passenger trains, which collided in Andhra Pradesh in October 2023, were watching a cricket match on a smartphone, informed Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. The dreadful collision took place October 29 at around 7 pm when the Rayagada Passenger train hit the Visakhapatnam Palasa train from behind on the Howrah-Chennai line in Kantakapalli. The collision led to the death of 14 passengers and over 50 were injured,
Minister Vaishnaw mentioned the Andhra train accident while talking about new safety measures in the trains which detect any such distraction. “The recent case in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the loco pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the cricket match which was going on. Now we are installing systems which can detect any such distraction and make sure that the pilots and the assistant pilots are fully focussed on running the train,” Vaishnaw told PTI.
The Railway Minister assured of he would put more focus on the safety of the passengers. “We will continue to put our focus on safety. We try to find out the root cause of every incident, and we come up with a solution so that it is not repeated,” he said.
The Railway Safety Commissioners haven’t disclosed their official probe outcomes regarding the incident yet. However, an initial inspection taken up by the railway team right after the occurrence found the main culprits were the driver and his assistant of the Rayagada Passenger train. Their recklessness in flouting rules by crossing over two faulty automatic signals was identified as the primary reason for the crash.
Notably, both crew members were killed in the collision.
(with PTI inputs).
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