What causes the frequent accidents at St. Thomas mount station?

The tragic death of five persons at St Thomas station has raised questions over safety of suburban rail passengers.

Published: 25th July 2018 05:47 AM | Last Updated: 
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 By B Anbuselvan
Express News Service

CHENNAI: While the tragic death of five persons at St. Thomas mount station on Tuesday raised questions over safety of suburban rail passengers, the reasons for the repeated accidents range from lack of alertness over usage of backpacks to absence of automatic closing doors in EMU trains, according to regular rail passengers and experts.“Be it in Chennai or Mumbai, suburban train commutation requires a little alertness. Each year more than 50,000 commuters, mostly college students, are getting added to the suburban network. Due to the recent bus fare hike more than a lakh passengers migrated to trains. But, these new train commuters lack vigil while travelling in trains,” said R Shankar, a rail enthusiast who lived in Mumbai for 15 years.

Seven persons who died at St. Thomas Mount in the last couple of days carried backpacks while travelling on footboards.“The backpack carried by students and others cause inconvenience to other passengers and also risk to the carriers. For new commuters, travel behaviour should be taught in the colleges, “ said K Baskar, a member of Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC), Chennai.

He added that Railways should fit automatic doors in all EMU trains. “Width of an EMU coach is higher than that of a regular Express coach. Railways should fix the distance between track and poles/wall keeping EMU trains in mind,” he said.

Over 600 suburban services cater to about 11 lakhs passengers a day in four sections.
Southern railway officials said fitting automatic closing doors for EMU trains is practically not feasible and would be a cumbersome process. “Though such an idea has been discussed in the past, railways never attempted for even a pilot project as suburban train handles a large number of passengers,” said an officer.

Reasons
Bus commuters who migrated to trains lack alertness required for suburban train travel

Use of backpacks while travelling on footboard

Lesser distance between track and pole/wall

Absence of automatic closing doors

`1L solatium to kin of the deceased
Chennai: Expressing grief over the death of five commuters at the St Thomas Mount railway station when the train hit the concrete poles, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced a solatium of ` 1 lakh each to the bereaved families. He also announced an aid of `50,000 to the injured persons

Railway’s attitude the reason: CPM
Chennai: Lethargic attitude of railway authorities was the reason for the fatal accident at St Thomas Mount railway station, said CPM leader K Balakrishnan. He said he accident on Tuesday could have been avoided if announcements had been made cautioning the public