Balagarh (Hooghly)(July-2011): Less than 48 hours after the Kalka Mail mishap, a crowded local and an express train came within seconds of crashing head-on at Balagarh station in Hooghly, some 66km from Kolkata, on Tuesday. It brought back memories of the horrific accident at Birbhum’s Sainthia station in July last year when two express trains collided, killing 66 passengers.
On Tuesday, the Up Bandel-Katwa EMU was standing at Balagarh station when the Hate Bazare Express from Saharsa in Bihar turned into the same track around 6.15am. There was panic all around. Vendors and commuters on the platform started screaming for the express driver to stop but the train chugged on. Dipankar Mukherjee, the motorman of the local, switched on the headlight...
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and started blowing his horn on the warning note. Commuters scurried off the local in terror. The commotion finally got to the Hate Bazare driver, R Prasad, who pulled the brakes and the express stopped barely 600 yards from the local.
Prasad was suspended for running a red light but he insists the signal was green when he entered the loop.
Stationmaster Sarfaraz Nawaz seemed oblivious to the near-disaster. A woman commuter got off the local train and rushed into his office to find him ‘relaxing’ with the earphones of his mobile plugged into his ears, say sources. She dragged Nawaz to the platform where other commuters began to heckle him. Fearing an attack, Nawaz pulled himself away and sought shelter elsewhere. Meanwhile, another mob rushed to the Hate Bazare driver. When Prasad said he was cleared to cross the loop, the mob then moved to the cabin and wanted to know why the signal
was green.
Railway officials rushed to the spot and initiated an inquiry. Prima facie, Prasad seems to have jumped the red signal, said an official. The near-miss exposed a potential procedural flaw that was first noticed in the Sainthia accident. Some officials wondered why the ‘points’ — where a train crosses over to another track — were set towards the loop line. According to them, even if the signal is red, it is normal procedure to set the ‘points’ towards a line that has no traffic. Had this procedure been followed at Sainthia, the Uttar Banga Express would not have slammed into the rear of Vananchal Express.
A head-on collision between the Hate Bazare Express and a local was averted with only seconds to spare when the two trains came on the same track at Balagarh station in Hooghly early on Tuesday. Terrified passengers screamed and the local driver switched on its headlights and blared the horn repeatedly as the express chugged on. It stopped barely 600 yards from disaster, reviving memories of the Sainthia accident last year when two trains collided, killing 68 people. The express driver was suspended for running a red light but he insists the signal was green.
Courtesy: skyscrapercity