New Delhi: A majority of the train accidents that take place in India are due to human error. CNN-IBN has accessed an internal safety report of the Railways which says that 18 of 21 accidents in the last four months took place due to human error.
Comptroller and Auditor General reports and internal safety audits conducted by the Railways have been pointing out how the organisation has been compromising on safety for many years now.
Manpower shortage, financial bottlenecks and delay in installing anti-collision devices are among key reasons why safety is being compromised.
Over 250 people have died in 93 train accidents in 2010 and 2011 while 18 of the 21 train accidents between April and July 2011 have been due to faults of railway staff. Railway staff have been blamed for 90 per cent of the avoidable accidents.
Reports also show that there is shortage 16,000 locomotive drivers and 50,000 gangmen in the railways.
The role of human error is back in focus following Tuesday night's collision between the Chennai Beach-Vellore Cantonment Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) train and the Arakonam-Katpadi passenger train killing 10 people and leaving at least 85 others injured.
While railway officials indicate that the EMU driver was overspeeding and skipped red signals before crashing into the stationary Arakonam-Katpadi passenger train near Chitheri station, about 90 kms from Chennai, there is also the question many drivers being overworked due to shortage of staff.
The meeting of chief safety officers of the railways over the last two years have discussed the issue of shortage of drivers but till now no concrete steps have been taken to address the issue.
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