Railway accidents

Citation

(2006), "Railway accidents", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315eac.004

Railway accidents

Railway accidents

22 April 2005Samlaya Station, Gujarat State, India

A total of 24 people were killed and another 80 seriously injured when a packed Ahmedabad-bound train crashed into a stationary goods train near Vadodara yesterday. At least 432 passengers were travelling in the seven derailed, mangled coaches, one air-conditioned bogey, five second-class sleeper coaches and one general car, when the Sabarmati Express from Varanasi collided with the cargo train at 03.00 hour. Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Federal Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav as well as his Deputy Minister from Gujarat, Naran Rathwa, who visited the spot, were told by railway officials that the signalman and his assistant responsible for the mishap were missing.

23 April 2005. Six railway officials have been suspended for alleged negligence that led to the fatal train collision in the western Indian state of Gujarat Thursday (21 April). The collision between a passenger train and a stationary goods train near the city of Baroda killed 17 people and injured 78, 34 of them seriously. Two of the suspended workers were a signalman at the station and his assistant, a railway official said. India has one of the world's largest rail networks but a poor safety record. The Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railways, Shailendra Kumar, said the inquiry into the accident started on today at the site at Samlaya station, 30 kilometres from Baroda. The inquiry is by the commissioner of railways safety, who comes under the Authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. A Second Railways Spokesman, Kamal Kishore Dubey, said that some of the suspended workers could be charged with negligent homicide, a crime that carries a jail term of up to six years.

“A faulty point lever setting sent the passenger train to the same track where the freight train was waiting for a signal to leave” said Mr Dubey. The passenger train was en route from the northern holy city of Varanasi to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, when it hit the freight train. Four coaches of the passenger train and the engine of the freight train were derailed.

25 April 2005Amagasaki, Japan

At least 50 people were killed and about 300 others injured today in western Japan when a morning commuter train derailed, sending one carriage hurtling into an apartment block in the nation's deadliest rail accident in 14 years. The crash was initially attributed to the train hitting a car but authorities later backtracked and said the train's 23-year-old driver may have been speeding or failed to negotiate a corner. The train was carrying some 580 passengers during the morning rush hour when three of its seven carriages were thrown from the tracks in Amagasaki, a city near Osaka some 300 kilometres west of Tokyo. One smashed into the side of an apartment building and another carriage lay tilted beside it. Emergency crews rushed to the scene to try to cut apart the wreckage to free trapped survivors. West Japan Railway Co initially said the train crashed when it hit a car but after an initial investigation, it found that the derailment happened about 100 metres before a crossing where a collision could have occurred. “We do not know yet what caused the accident” JR West's President Takeshi Kakiuchi told a news conference. The 23-year-old driver of the train, Ryujiro Takami, had 11 months experience at the job, another senior railway company official said, adding that it was unclear if he had been obeying the area speed limit of 70 kilometres an hour. The driver was seriously hurt but the conductor was cooperating with police trying to piece together the cause of the disaster. Survivors said the train was running late and seemed to be faster than usual.

26 April 2005. Japanese police looking for clues to the cause of the country's worst rail crash in more than 40 years raided the offices of the train's operator today as weeping relatives claimed the remains of many of the 73 confirmed dead from a makeshift morgue. Investigations were focusing on the speed at which the crowded train was travelling when it jumped the tracks on the outskirts of the Western City of Osaka and smashed into an apartment building just after rush hour yesterday morning. Police investigating for possible professional negligence took away boxes of documents from the offices of West Japan Railway Co JR West President Takeshi Kakiuchi will resign to take responsibility for the disaster, in which another 440 people were injured, Kyodo news agency quoted a company official as saying. At the accident scene workers were using heavy machinery to take apart and remove one of the cars, while safety investigators inspected and photographed the site. Two women and a man were pulled alive from the wreckage earlier today but even 30 hours after the crash police could not say for sure that all of the dead and injured had been extracted from the mass of crumpled and twisted metal. Investigators said the cause of the crash was still unclear, but survivors among the some 580 passengers, as well as the train's conductor, said they believed the train was going faster than normal after falling behind schedule. The train had overshot the previous station by about 40 metres and had to reverse back to the platform. The driver, a 23-year-old man with 11 months' experience, was retrieved from the wreckage this morning, but a police spokesman could not confirm whether he was alive or dead. The automatic train stop system in the area was of the oldest type and had no ability to apply automatic brakes if a passing train was going too fast, the Transport Ministry said. JR West said investigators found marks on the tracks of the type left when a train runs over an object such as a stone, but it said it was not clear if this was related to the accident.

26 April 2005. Rescuers have pulled three survivors and more bodies from the wreckage of a Japanese train as the death toll rose to 76. Cranes removed train debris wrapped around an apartment building. Three people were confirmed dead late today, some 36 hours after the speeding commuter train jumped the tracks and smashed into an apartment building during the morning rush hour in Amagasaki near Osaka. The search was continuing for a second night so long as hope remained for survivors amid reports that 10-20 people could still be trapped under the debris, a fire department spokesman said.

27 April 2005. The death toll in Japan's worst rail accident in four decades looked set to top 100 today as hopes of finding more survivors in the wreckage faded along with the light of the third day of rescue efforts. As darkness fell, the official death toll stood at 94 and there was little hope for the 20 or so people still believed to be trapped inside the front carriage of the train, embedded in the ground floor car park of an apartment building. No survivors have been found since early yesterday when three people were extracted from the twisted mass of metal. “The front carriage has been crushed to a fraction of its normal length, so we are continuing this work with very little hope” said a fire department official. Rescue teams used ultrasound equipment to check for heart beats in the crumpled carriage but there was no sign of life. Police raided JR West's offices yesterday looking for clues on the cause of the crash, which occurred as the packed commuter train rounded a tight curve just after the morning rush hour.

28 April 2005. Workers have pulled a body in uniform from the wreckage of Japan's rail disaster and police say the victim could be the 23-year-old driver of the train. The discovery put the death toll at 104 people. The actions of the driver are at the centre of the investigation into Monday's (25 April) deadly wreck.

28 April 2005. Rescue teams today called off the search for further victims and survivors from Japan's worst train wreck in four decades which claimed at least 106 lives, the fire department said. “The emergency rescue team has disbanded after we confirmed that there is no visible sign of survivors” said a fire department spokesman in the Western City of Amagasaki. Another fire department official said a final check was made and the mangled steel of the commuter train's front carriage handed over to police after the four day, round-the-clock rescue operation. “The search for victims is finished. Police are now doing an investigation and our rescue operation is suspended unless the police need our help” the official said. The debris still has pieces of bodies which could be verified for the final death toll.

29 April 2005. Japanese police began investigations today at the site of a commuter train crash that killed 106 people, the country's worst in 40 years, after calling off the search for more victims. Pressure on the train's driver to make up lost time may have contributed to the tragedy, union leaders said, as police combed through the twisted metal left behind when two train carriages derailed and slammed into an apartment block on Monday (25 April). Among the victims was the 23-year-old driver, whose body was pulled from the crumpled metal yesterday several hours before search and rescue efforts ended. A total of 458 people were injured, about 150 of them seriously. Investigators have yet to conclude why the packed train jumped the tracks in Amagasaki, on the outskirts of the western City of Osaka, but excessive speed appears to have played a role. Media have said pressure put on train drivers by operator West Japan Railway Co (JR West) may have contributed to the accident. Union officials say JR West was known to harshly reprimand drivers who caused delays. Punishments included cutting salaries, demotions and subjecting drivers to a “re-education” process that employees said could involve months of writing reports and doing menial tasks such as weeding flowerbeds.

1 May 2005. Workers hauled away mangled railway cars yesterday as they cleaned up the site of Japan's worst train crash in four decades, while police said the death toll rose to 107 after a woman pulled from the wreckage several days ago died. In addition, the train's operator said it would consider revising its tight timetable to ease the pressure on drivers. Investigators believe the driver of the train that crashed last Monday (25 April) was speeding immediately before the derailment to make up time. The front cars of the train, which workers had to pry loose from the apartment building it crashed into, were transported to a warehouse, where investigators continued their probe into the crash, said Hyogo State Police Spokesman Tomohiro Okubo. The West Japan Railway Co commuter train skipped the tracks at Amagasaki, an industrial city about 250 miles west of Tokyo, and slammed into the apartment building. Of the roughly 580 passengers, 107 people died and more than 460 others were injured. A 46-year-old woman, who was among the last survivors rescued early on Tuesday, died at a hospital yesterday, Hyogo police said. Police believe the train was going so fast that the lead car had tipped and was riding on one set of wheels going around the corner before derailing, matching what passengers have said about the accident. Authorities examining the tracks at the crash site found scrapes along the outside rails but none on the inside, the national Yomiuri, Japan's largest newspaper, said, citing police sources. That suggested the lead railway car had tipped so far to one side as it hit a curve that half its wheels were airborne. Survivors riding at the front of the train have told TV networks that the car had pitched to such a steep angle that passengers were unable to remain standing without holding onto rings dangling above. The 23-year-old driver, whose body was found on Thursday, is suspected of driving too fast. Authorities, investigating allegations of professional negligence, have searched the railroad's offices and were analysing the train's “black box” a computer chip that stores information about the train's speed. Investigators reportedly believe driver Ryujiro Takami was going faster than 65 mph, far above the speed limit on that stretch of track, after overshooting a station by 40 yards. He was 90 seconds behind schedule – a significant delay in Japan – and many believe he was trying to make up for lost time. Responding to criticism that the train service's tight timetable was causing frequent delays and pressure on drivers, the railroad's safety director said it was considering changing the schedule to allow more time between trains. “We will review the timetable and try to find out details about the delays” Tsunemi Murakami said. “If necessary, we'll consider revising it”.

2 May 2005. The driver applied the emergency brake in last week's fatal train derailment in Japan, it was reported today. The Construction and Transport Ministry's Aircraft and Railway Accident Investigation Commission concluded that the driver, Ryujiro Takami, who died in the accident, applied the emergency brake, contributing to the train's derailment and rollover as it entered a curve at excessive speed. A train driver typically controls the brake with a right-hand lever and engine power with a left-hand lever. The brakes are controlled by moving the lever back and forth across eight levels. When the driver pushes the brakes to the forward-most position, the emergency brake is applied. The emergency brake can also be applied by a train conductor using levers near the door of the conductor's compartment. The emergency brake system is activated automatically when a coupling gear comes off. The investigation commission concluded that the seven-car train's right wheels came off the tracks as it travelled around the curve and leaned to the left before its lead car overturned. It also said the unprecedented derailment and rollover was caused because the train entered the curve at a speed of more than 100kph and the emergency brake was applied. The commission intends to establish when and at what point on the tracks Takami applied the emergency brake by further examining records of monitors collected from the derailed train. Meanwhile, it was learned that serious operational errors caused by employees of the railroad – also known as JR West – in fiscal 2004 nearly doubled from the previous year. According to JR West, operational errors are divided into three categories. The most serious errors are level 3 incidents, which include derailments and ignoring a traffic signal. Passing through a stop and running more than ten minutes behind schedule are designated level 1 errors while overshooting a station is regarded as a level 2 error. Other minor incidents are not subject to punishment. Total incidents in the three categories have gradually dropped from 956 in fiscal 1999 to 614 last year. However, the occurrences of level 3 incidents increased dramatically from an average of 40 each year between fiscal 1999 and 2003 to 69 in fiscal 2004, far exceeding the 37 cases reported in fiscal 2003. It was also discovered the head of JR's Osaka branch, where the driver was stationed, had indicated that making a profit was the top priority for the current fiscal year. The written policy was distributed to all 5,000 branch employees in early April. Hyogo Prefectural Police suspect the firm's emphasis on profit over safety may have led to the accident. Tsunemi Murakami, Director of JR West's Safety Department, said during a press conference yesterday that the overall policy of JR West and the Osaka branch was to provide safe transport.

3 May 2005. The railway company whose train derailed in a deadly crash in Japan last week started installing a new emergency braking system today, responding to the transport minister's warning that its service could not resume until upgrading is completed. The West Japan Railway Co commuter train derailed and slammed into an apartment building last week at Amagasaki in western Japan, leaving 107 dead and more than 460 others injured. The train's automatic brake system was an older model, which experts have said does not work at high speeds. Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa yesterday told the company that upgrading the system would be a key precondition to restarting service on the line. Railway workers today started installing the new braking system at the crash site, where hundreds of people continued to lay flowers and mourn the loss of loved ones. Investigators reportedly believe the derailed train's 23-year-old driver was going over 65 mph, far above the speed limit on that stretch of track because the train was running late. Critics say tight timetables put heavy pressure on train drivers in Japan, whose rail service is famous for punctuality.

28 May 2005. A commuter train which derailed and crashed into an apartment building in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, on 25 April was travelling well above the speed limit on the railway section at 126 kilometres-per-hour just before the fatal accident, police investigators said yesterday. The police earlier said they suspected the train derailed after going into a curve at a speed exceeding 100kph. The speed limit for that section of the line is 70kph. The train driver is believed to have sped up to make up for the train's 90-second delay due to a 40-metre overrun at a previous station.

11 May 2005. The total number of people injured in Japan's deadliest train crash in four decades has climbed to 540, the railway company said on Monday (9 May). The West Japan Railway Company commuter train derailed and slammed into an apartment building on 25 April at Amagasaki in western Japan leaving 107 dead. The total number of injured has risen to 540 people with about 120 still in hospital, the company said. Investigators believe the train's 23-year-old driver was going well over the speed limit because the train was running late, causing the derailment. Train drivers in Japan face heavy pressure to keep to timetables in a country whose rail service is famous for punctuality.

18 May 2005. West Japan Railway Co President Takeshi Kakiuchi indicated yesterday he would resign to take responsibility for the deadly train wreck last month in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. Appearing before a Diet Committee, Kakiuchi said he would announce his resignation at an appropriate time, adding he did not know at this point when that would be. He had earlier said he had no intention of resigning over the accident that claimed 107 lives because, he claimed, he had to instruct staff on how to work together to prevent accidents and ensure safety. “Corporate reform of JR West will take three, five or maybe ten years, but I do not intend to stay that long” Kakiuchi said. Kakiuchi said he did not necessarily think the carrier's tight operating schedule was directly connected to the 25 April accident. The Hyogo Prefectural Police suspect JR West's timetable contributed to the accident by placing a psychological burden on its train drivers. The crash investigation found that the driver was operating the ill-fated train at an excessive speed to make up for a 90-second delay caused by overrunning a stop at an earlier station. The tight schedule “may have been one of the background factors, but I cannot say if it was directly linked” to the crash, Kakiuchi said. Kakiuchi also reiterated that JR West may buy the nine-story apartment building the Fukuchiyama Line train crashed into and erect a memorial there to hold an annual ceremony in remembrance of the disaster. He said the company would offer its apologies to the apartment residents and explain its compensation plan for them in the near future. All the residents except for two have moved out of the complex. Kakiuchi again stated that JR West would change its management philosophy and place priority on safety. “Our safety efforts were insufficient” he said. “We will make the necessary capital investments for our facilities. Besides investing in the hardware, we would like to nurture a corporate culture that attaches importance to safety”. About reopening the Fukuchiyama Line, transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa said, “I would like to consider the timing of the reopening after thoroughly checking JR West's safety enhancement plans to be submitted at the end of May”.

19 May 2005. Some train drivers with West Japan Railway Co have said they thought speed limits are set with latitude and going beyond them would not cause derailments, following the fatal derailment and crash of a JR West train in April in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. “When I was an apprentice, a teacher at drivers training school told me that speeding by 5 to 10 kilometres-per-hour is all right” said a driver in his 40s serving on the Fukuchiyama Line, on which the 25 April derailment took place.

15 May 2005. West Japan Railway Co announced yesterday it would resume train services between Takarazuka and Amagasaki stations on the Fukuchiyama Line, which have been suspended since the fatal derailment on 25 April on Sunday (19 June). The firm submitted a new timetable to the Construction and Transport Ministry's Kinki District Transport Bureau the same day. JR West said the firm decided to resume train services on Sunday because it had obtained some understanding of its efforts to secure safety for passengers from the bereaved families and the victims. The firm installed an ATS-P, the latest Automatic Train Stop system, on the line and submitted the plan to improve safety to the ministry after revising the timetable. As driver skills training for 510 drivers who drive trains on the line will be completed on Saturday, JR West decided to resume services on the section on Sunday. As speeding is believed to have caused the accident, JR West will reduce the speed limit on the curve where the train derailed to 60kph from 70kph while lowering it by 25kph on the straight stretches to 95kph. The firm newly installed 20 signals indicating the point where a driver should apply the brake and perform other operations on the line. The firm set a margin of permissible lateness for various services of between 25 seconds and 3 minutes and 15 seconds, and increased the stopping time at each station by 20 seconds to a maximum of 50 seconds. The travel time for rapid trains was increased by 90 seconds between Takarazuka and Amagasaki stations. The average travel time between those stations was increased to 20 minutes from 18 minutes and 16 seconds in the morning rush hours. Kenzo Tokuoka, Head of the firm's railway's operations, said the firm set the reduction of the speed limit out of consideration of the bereaved families' feelings, adding that the firm believed there were no safety problems even if trains ran at the former speed limit of 120kph.

20 June 2005. Services on the JR Fukuchiyama Line were fully resumed this morning nearly two months after a deadly derailment that left 107 people dead. The company estimates that it lost 25-30 million yen per day from the suspension of operations on the Takarazuka-Amagasaki section, totalling some 1.5 billion yen. It projects that it will be required to pay Hankyu Railway about 800 million yen for providing substitute transportation for passengers on this section. The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry allowed JR West to resume services on this section after the company installed the most advanced automatic train braking system, which automatically slows down trains if they exceed the speed limit.

25 April 2005Limpopo Province, South Africa

Nine people were killed and 59 hurt when a train hit a bus crossing a railway line in South Africa's northern Province of Limpopo, police said today. Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi, based in the northern Limpopo town of Thohoyandou, said some of the seriously injured were airlifted by helicopter to five different hospitals. Others were taken by ambulance. “The bus was upside down on the tracks. I have never seen an accident like this before” he said. The driver of the bus, who survived the accident, appeared to have ignored a stop sign and driven across the railway tracks as the freight train approached, he said. No one on the train was injured.

27 April 2005Polgahawela, Sri Lanka

More than 50 people have been killed and at least 40 others injured after a train slammed into a bus on a level crossing in Sri Lanka. The bus was packed with commuters when it was hit by the express train. The accident occurred near the town Polgahawela, 80 kilometres north-east of the capital, Colombo. The bus, which was crossing the tracks at a level crossing, caught fire upon impact. The crash happened at 02.30, GMT, police officials reported. “They are still bringing in the injured. There are more than 40 injured in the hospital so far” Nalika Bandara, a Healthcare Officer at Kurunegala Government Hospital near the crash site told Reuters news agency. Rescue workers are still trying to reach the burned remains of passengers. There were no immediate reports of casualties among the passengers on the train, which was travelling from Colombo to the central hill city of Kandy.

3 May 2005Graniteville, South Carolina, United States

Residents and business owners who had property damaged after a train wreck spilled toxic chlorine in Graniteville in January could get money from the railroad as soon as this summer. Norfolk Southern and lawyers representing a number of plaintiffs not severely injured or killed in the incident announced today in federal court they have reached a tentative settlement in a class action suit. Details, including monetary amounts, were not disclosed because some smaller points still need to be finalised, said Joe Rice, lawyer for the plaintiffs, but both sides expect the settlement to be filed publicly in about two weeks. The settlement is novel for the speed it came about and the scope of what it covered, Rice said. It comes about four months after a Norfolk Southern train struck a parked train on a side track, causing a deadly cloud of chlorine gas to spread over parts of the mill village and nearby Avondale Mills plant. Nine people were killed and about 250 injured. The clean-up forced the evacuation of about 5,400 people who lived or worked within a mile of the wreck. The settlement covers items, such as cars damaged beyond repair or meat spoiled because of power outages, on a dollar-to-dollar basis, Rice said. It also will provide money for things that are more difficult to qualify, such as stress from the incident, lost business or inconvenience caused by the evacuation, which for some lasted more than a week, he said. It will not cover lawsuits for anyone killed in the wreck or injured badly enough to go to the hospital within 72 hours of the crash. Those suits will be handled separately, Rice said. The settlement should be presented to a federal judge in about two weeks and a hearing held to finalize it sometime the week of 23 May. Depending on how long claims will be accepted, money could start going to residents and businesses by this summer, Rice said. Although the settlement would end most claims for people affected by the crash, it could be years before the serious injury and death cases are dealt with, lawyers said. Attorneys for the railroad estimate there should be fewer than 100 of those suits.

19 May 2005Labuhan Ratu Kedaton, Lampung Province, Sumatra, Indonesia

Two trains collided today in Indonesia, killing at least ten people and injuring dozens, a radio report said. A passenger train crashed into a freight train carrying coal in Labuhan Ratu Kedaton in the Sumatran Province of Lampung at 18.10, local time, El Shinta Radio said. Rescuers were trying to evacuate dozens of passengers who were still trapped in the wreckage, it said.

2 June 2005Novoselovka, Odessa Region, Ukraine

A freight train smashed into a bus at a level crossing in southern Ukraine today, killing 14 people and injuring eight. The Emergencies Ministry said four of the injured were in hospital in a serious condition. It said the driver of the bus, operating a local route to Odessa, had broken traffic rules. News reports said the crossing had no gate to keep cars off the tracks. “According to initial conclusions, the accident occurred as a result of a failure to observe traffic rules and of the derailment of the train” a ministry statement said. Officials were unable to say how many people were on board the bus when the collision occurred about 15.15 hour. The train, carrying coal, struck the bus in the village of Novoselovka.

21 June 2005Kiryat Gat, Israel

At least seven people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a train crash in Central Israel, say officials. The packed passenger train was going south from Tel Aviv when it is thought to have collided with a truck at a level crossing near Kiryat Gat town. Witnesses spoke of horrific scenes, with passengers thrown from carriages and at least two rail cars derailed. Rescue teams were working to free people from the wreckage as helicopters evacuated casualties from the scene. Some rescuers spoke of difficulty reaching the site, because the crash had happened away from the main roads. Uri Bar Lev, the Southern Police Commander, said there were “apparently” deaths, but figures would not be provided until later. An official of the Magen David Adom Ambulance Service said at least seven people, while more than 100 people had been injured, at least three of them seriously.

21 June 2005. A passenger train collided with a coal delivery truck in a remote field in Central Israel today, killing at least seven people and injuring nearly 200. Police said the crash appeared to be an accident. Passengers were thrown from the train cars. Three train cars derailed and were left mangled and twisted wrecks. Splinters of metal were strewn on the side of the tracks, some dozens of yards away. “One of the railroad cars is upside down, and it's impossible to tell what's inside” Dudi Greenwald, a medic at the scene, said. “It's the worst accident I've ever seen”. Helicopters arrived to help transport the injured, and rescuers climbed over the train seats in their efforts to pull the wounded out of the trains. The collision happened in a field off the main road, near the town of Revadim, about 25 miles south of Tel Aviv. Rescue workers said they had a difficult time moving the wounded to the ambulances over rough terrain. The train, carrying 300-400 people from Tel Aviv to the southern city of Beersheba, was travelling as fast as 80 mph when it hit the coal delivery truck at about 18.00, local time, on a remote section of the track that contained a crossing but no traffic light, said Avi Zohar, a Spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue services. The truck weighed about 40 tons, he said. Israeli Police said five were dead at the scene and two others died in hospitals. Also, 191 people were treated for injuries, police spokeswoman Anat Gil-Zuberi said. Israel TV also reported that a female soldier was in critical condition. Authorities said the crash appeared to be an accident and there was no reason to suspect it was an intentional attack.

23 June 2005. An initial estimate of the money to be paid to victims from the tragic train crash near Kiryat Gat on Tuesday (21 June), which resulted in the deaths of seven people and close to 200 injured, places compensation at more than NIS 150 million (£18.16 million). The cost would be shared between the Defence Ministry, the National Insurance Institute and the insurance companies. In addition, the train accident will cost Israel Railways an estimated $10 million. Israel's bureau of insurance agents says the people injured and killed on Tuesday are classified as road accident victims and are, therefore, entitled to coverage under Israel Railways' mandatory insurance coverage. The only exceptions are soldiers, who are covered by the Defence Ministry, says the bureau, and people who were taking the train to or from work, who are covered by the NII. Under the law governing road accidents, each victim is entitled to legal representation, the costs of which Israel Railways' insurer, the Phoenix insurance company, must cover. People with personal accident coverage have to file their claims via their insurance agents. Phoenix' losses will be limited to $2 million, as it had spread its risk through reinsurance overseas. The results of an Israel Railways' examination show that one railcar was a total loss. It was an advanced model, worth 1.5 million euros. Damage to the railroad track and related infrastructure is estimated at dozens of millions of shekels. Evyatar Reiter, a expert in public transportation and trains, says a relatively small investment spent to isolate railway tracks from roads could have prevented Tuesday's accident. There are approximately 200 crossings in Israel where roads cross the tracks, and Israel Railways has a list of about 30 “red crossings” that it says require immediate attention. Reiter says that NIS one billion would be enough to essentially solve the problem. “Obviously, its impossible to build overpasses at all the railway crossings” he says, “but we could certainly minimize the damage”. Israel Railways CEO Yossi Mor said yesterday that the railway is currently building overpasses at seven critical crossings, and it intends to increase such spending under its five year plan.

13 July 2005Ghokti, Pakistan

A major train collision in southern Pakistan has left at least 120 dead, local police say. The dawn incident near the town of Ghotki in Sindh Province involved three packed passenger express trains. At least 13 train carriages have been derailed. “It is a very gruesome situation” said local police official Aga Mohammed Tahir. An express slammed into the back of a stationary train, and a third train ploughed into derailed coaches. Abdul Aziz, a senior controller at Pakistan Railways, said that the incident happened at about 04.00 today on the border between the Provinces of Sindh and Punjab, when most of the passengers were sleeping. Officials said the Karachi Express ran into the rear of broken down Quetta Express at a station near Ghotki, about 600 kilometres north-east of the city of Karachi. A third train travelling in the opposite direction – the Tezgam Express – then hit a number of derailed carriages, which were scattered over several tracks. Mr Tahir was quoted as saying that rescuers began pulling out the dead and injured out of the trains. “There were many people inside and there are lot of casualties” the police official said.

14 July 2005. Rescue workers searched through the night for possible survivors as the death toll from the Pakistan's worst train crash in over a decade rose to 132, a government official said today. The accident occurred early yesterday morning when the driver of a Karachi bound express coming from Lahore misread a signal and hit the standing Quetta Express at Sarhad station near Ghotki, some 1,300 kilometres from the capital Islamabad. A third train coming from Karachi then hit three carriages of the Quetta Express which had tossed onto a nearby through track, leading to colossal loss of life. “I can confirm 132 deaths by midnight with about 130 wounded” Provincial Government Spokesman Salauddin Haider said. As many as 130 passengers were being treated at the combined military hospital in Ghotki while four critically injured were flown to Karachi. Haider said the bodies of 37 victims had been identified and handed over to their relatives while hospital officials were still trying to locate relatives of other victims. “A number of the bodies are totally mutilated and are impossible to identify” he added. Stranded passengers have already been moved to their respective destinations and the track is being cleared. The down track service has already been restored. President General Pervez Musharraf visited the site of the accident late yesterday. He ruled out sabotage and blamed neglect as the possible cause of the disaster.