Unguarded level crossing, frequent mechanical and human failures, dilapidated rail tracks and outdated signalling system were the main reasons behind 590 rail accidents this year.
According to the Bangladesh Railway (BR) statistics, some 51 persons died while another 149 were injured in the accidents including the latest head-on collision between two trains in Narsingdi on Wednesday.
The recent train accident is considered the biggest head-on collision in ten years, BR officials said.
They said this year the number of derailments is significantly high, but the majority of the deaths occurred at unguarded and unauthorised level crossings.
As many as 53 accidents occurred this year at level crossings around the country, killing about 22 persons. Mostly, collision between road traffic and train caused the accidents. In a few incidents, pedestrians were run over by trains while they were crossing the rail track at level crossings.
The rail officials also suspect that many train accidents at level crossings especially the minor ones went unreported.
“Accident at level crossing is our major concern since we don’t have any control over it,” said Mohammad Shahjahan, additional director general (operations) of BR.
The ADG said, “Level crossings sprouted up without any authorisation from the railway and it is very difficult to guard them. We protested this practice many times but no one listened.”
At many level crossings, the railway has not been able to provide approach warning signals and road signals, he added. At present, the country’s 2855 km rail network has some 1,403 level crossings whereas only 250 level crossing gates are operated by gatemen round the clock.
In Dhaka, negligent drivers and pedestrians are making the situation even worse.
He mentioned that the railway considers activities within 50 yards of rail tracks illegal but no one listens to this warning.
Moreover, the poor condition of tracks often causes derailments.
Yesterday in Kishoreganj, a Chittagong-bound mail train derailed while coming from Bahadurabad of Mymensingh.
Railway and local sources said four compartments of the train came off the track around 3:30pm, leaving 20 people injured.
They said faults in the rail trackinadequate stone support and weak sleeper– caused the accident.
The derailments most of the time happened on branch lines because the condition of those is worse. There were 489 derailments this year.
Though the derailments did not cause any deaths, properties of BR were damaged in the accidents, Shahjahan noted.
“Restoration of tracks is going on at many points currently,” the ADG said.
About human failure, he said shortage of manpower increased workload on technical hands like locomotive masters and stationmasters and this is the reason behind human failure.
BR record shows there were eight incidents of disregarding signal this year.
In 2009, 60 people died in train accidents. Of them 51 died in collisions between train and road traffic at the level crossings. The death toll was 53 in 2008 in 893 train accidents.
On April 16, 2008, 17 people were killed and 25 others injured in a fatal accident when a Dhaka-bound intercity train rammed a passenger bus at a level crossing in Kalihati upazila of Tangail.
According to the Bangladesh Railway, around 5050 train accidents occurred in the country between 2000 and 2009.
