Click to play videoNew Delhi: The year 2009 has seen over 170 train accidents, it's been particularly a bad year as far as safety records go for the Indian Railways with at least four major train accidents. And even as the number swells, little is being done to make rail travel safer.
In a freak accident on January 20, over 150 people fell off the roof of the Saryu Express in Uttar Pradesh. The train was moving at great speed, when the branch of a tree nearby swept them off the roof. Among the victims were young men going for an Army recruitment drive, who chose to ride on a train roof as the train was already full.
On February 13, 12 carriages of the Coromandel Express derailed soon after it left the Jajpur Road station in Orissa. Ironically, the accident occurred while the Railway Budget was being presented.
On April 29, two unauthorised people ran an electric train unnoticed for almost seven kilometers in the suburbs of Chennai, before ramming it into a goods train. Both men died in the accident, killing four others and injuring eleven.
On May 20, four people including three children were killed when a school van collided with the Ferozepur-Bathinda Express at a railway crossing in Jalandhar.
The number of accidents involving trains is on the rise, but the Government is yet to put railway safety on the fast track.
Till basic safety issues are addressed, a safe, secure and modern railway network is still some distance away.
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