Not a week since Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation initiated the process of cremating 28 unclaimed bodies from the harrowing Balasore train accident on June 2, another train derailment in Bihar’s Buxar district hit us on a Wednesday night. Nearly 70 people remain injured and at least four people died in yet another accident when six compartments of the Delhi-Kamakha bound Northeast Express train derailed. The Express train from Anand Vihar Terminal in Delhi to Kamakhya Junction in Guwahati had left Buxar station and was near Raghunathpur railway station, about 40 km from Buxar and 160 km from Patna. The compartments in disarray has left several injured.
Television visuals showed locals rushing to the rescue of the passengers and helping them come out of at least two toppled coaches. The visuals also showed a woman passenger in a state of shock being helped out of a coach by locals.
Patna Medical College and Hospital, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, and Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, the three leading hospitals in Bihar have been put on alert to remain prepared with an emergency situation rising as rescue operations remain underway.
Not too early, the Balasore train accident happened that claimed nearly 300 lives in Odisha’s Balasore district and yet another derailment in the nearby state of Bihar would take us back to the horrific sceneries of the dead being uncovered while bloodshed covered railway tracks.
Visuals of the accident showed some passengers being rescued with the help of stairs.
The cause of the train derailment still remains under question as ministers and leaders have started monitoring the situation. Meanwhile, condolence messages have started pouring in while casualties might rise and families run frantically to identify their loved and dear ones. Or the disaster may not reach the extreme and spare the nation from another Balasore to repeat itself.
But that’s perhaps not for us to decide. We can only question who pays the price every time a derailment occurs or lapses on the part of the authorities lead to substandard construction works.
In the wake of repeated train accidents, Outlook looks at its archive of what happened when the Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches near the Bahanaga Bazar station. And a reminder for us that blood and death should not be the recurring price against trust in the safety of the railways.
