Preliminary findings of the committee formed on Wednesday to investigate the cause of Narsingdi train accidents said violation of signal by the Chattala Express loco master was responsible for the accident.
At least 10 people were killed and more than a hundred injured when Dhaka-bound intercity train Chattala Express rammed another intercity train, Mahanagar Godhuli Express which was waiting on the railway to leave for Chittagong, at the Narsingdi station on Wednesday afternoon.
Eight of the deceased were identified — Hafijuddin, 35, Rafijuddin, Rafiqul Islam, Mafijul Haque, 45, Sajal, 18, Habijul, Zahirul Haque and Farid.
The communications minister, Abul Hossain, on Thursday told the parliament that it was not unlikely that the accident could be an act of sabotage.
Investigation committee member Md Habibur Rahman, also Dhaka divisional railway manager, told New Age on Thursday evening that after preliminary investigation, they found that Chattala loco masters Arifur Rahman and Mayeen Uddin had violated the signal and the speed limit.
He said that the Chattala loco master left the main railway and entered the platform, ignoring the signal. The accident could have been avoided if the Chattala Express had been able to reduce its speed, he added.
Arifur, who fell unconscious immediately after the accident, is now being treated in Dhaka Medial College Hospital.
Habibur said that two loco masters and two assistant loco masters were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
The fire service and civil defence team officially called off rescue operation about 9:00am on Thursday. The team recovered the last death body about 2:45am.
Two relief trains could remove the damaged compartments to clear the railway after working for about 10 hours.
The investigating team visited the place and examining the panel board in the assistant station master’s room and signal points of the railway.
Railway signal expert Anwarul Islam told New Age that no train would enter the station without being signalled. Assistant station master ATM Musa, who was on duty at the time, and the signal expert said the Chattala Express loco master lost control and signal entered the station on the same railway in violation of the signal and hit another Mahanagar Godhuli Express, scheduled to leave the station.
In keeping with railway rules, loco masters are allowed to run trains at a maximum speed of 16kmph. But the Chattala Express loco masters ran the train at 70kmph, Habibur added.
Train communications on the Dhaka–Chittagong and Dhaka–Sylhet routes resumed on Wednesday night, about five hours after the accident. All the trains scheduled to ply the routes were delayed by a few hours as they were running on an alternative railway line.
A number of people injured in the accident are being treated in different hospitals and private medical facilities.
Kaiyum, who survived the accident, told New Age, ‘I heard a bang and then I found myself lying in the hospital bed.’
Kaiyum, from Raipura in Narsingdi, is a BBA student of a private university in Dhaka and was headed for Chittagong. He was being treated in Narsingdi General Hospital.
‘I was in the third compartment from the engine end. Perhaps this is why I have survived,’ said Suman, 35, a businessman of Dhaka.
A housewife, Rekha Baroi, said she did not know how she had survived and come out of the seriously damaged compartment.
Rekha was on her way to Chittagong to visit her uncle’s. She had her husband with her. They were travelling in the first row seats of the first compartment of Mahanagar Godhuli Express.
The communication minister, Abul Hossain, on Thursday told the parliament that it was not unlikely that the train accident could be an act of sabotage.
He also said that newspaper reports published on Thursday on casualties in the accident was not true.
‘I am still confused, whether it was a simply an accident or an act of sabotage,’ said the minister, adding that the incident of head-on collision of two passenger trains was rare.
The minister rejected straightway the figure of the casualties published in newspapers, saying seven people were killed and 29 other injured.
