Loco-pilot to face action for Pattabiram accident

Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN | May 7, 2016

The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will conduct an inquiry on Tuesday and Wednesday into the accident between Pattabiram and Hindu College stations, where two coaches and the locomotive of the Trivandrum Mail derailed before grazing the side of an EMU bound for Pattabiram siding at 8:20pm on Thursday.

The loco-pilot of the mail train has been suspended, the Southern Railway general manager (GM)'s office told TOI.

Six passengers were injured in the accident, two of whom sustained grievous injuries and were operated upon. Official said the 43121 EMU from Moore Market Complex (MMC) had just left Hindu College station at 8:15pm.There are four lines from Chennai to ArakIllustratio Shinod Akkaraparam konam and the EMU was on the last track on the left. It moved right to go to the Pattabiram siding station on a branch line.

The Trivandrum Mail was speeding from Chennai Central on the third line from the right. Just after Hindu College station, the driver overshot a signal. At this time, the EMU was cutting across the same line on which the mail was. Six of the nine bogies of the EMU had crossed. The driver jammed the emergency brakes, but could not stop the train from touching the EMU at the point where the siding and main lines converged. "If the loco-pilot had not applied the emergency brakes, the collision would have been more disastrous," senior railway officials at the spot were heard saying.

Latest Commentunderstandable. a valid point added about signalling and traffic management , to avoid repetition of such unfortunate incidents. hope all injured recover soonSeham Renganathan

A section of officials, including GM Vashishta Johri, told TOI on Friday that jumping the signal caused the accident. The collision occurred at the point where a siding line and a main converged.Officials concurred that there would be severe action against the loco-pilot. While skeletal EMU services were restored in three hours, four longdistance trains were delayed on Friday .

V Balachandran, working president, All India Loco Running Staff Association, said the inquiry must analyse the reasons behind the human error, if any. "The loco-pilot was from the Salem division.We have been demanding that only the staff of the division concerned should drive in the region as they will be well-versed with the curves and signals," he said. The locomotive was removed on Friday afternnon and traffic restored by night.