“Human error” had led to the collision between the Uttar Banga Express and Vananchal Express at the Sainthia railway station in Birbhum early on Monday. The railway authorities have come to this conclusion after a day-long investigation at the accident site.
Mechanical fault in the engine of the Uttar Banga Express have been ruled out. Whether the “human error” was intentional or otherwise is now under the probe. “Loco pilot M.C. Dey, an A category driver, and his assistant Nirmal Kumar Mondal never applied brakes or emergency brakes when the train was about to hit the Vananchal Express. Prima facie, we have found this and also that there was no effort to stop the train. They were on their seats. This kind of human error was not expected from them,” said railway board chairman Vivek Sahay.
He was speaking in the evening after returning from the site of accident. Both drivers of Uttar Banga and guard of Vananchal Express were killed alongwith 59 passengers. “When a man travelling on train comes to know that he is going to die he tries to jump out of the train. But in this case they did not even try to jump out despite seeing that the train was heading for a collision. They remained seated. We found their bodies on the seats during our inspection. This is an exceptional and unusual collision that took place due to a human error.”
Asked if he suspected sabotage, Mr Sahay said: “We are keeping all options open and are probing into the collision from all possible angles.” It was also found during the investigation that the speed of the train was around 90 km per hour instead of being below 30 km per hour. Besides, the signal light was also red which suggests that the train was not permitted to enter the station anyway, Mr Sahay pointed out, saying that the train did not follow the signal. “We are now trying to find what went wrong with the driver and his assistant. That is the focus of our investigation,” the chairman added.