How cruel can life be for someone

Last evening, Coromandel Express was travelling as per schedule from Kolkata to Chennai. The train was passing Bahanaga Bazar station, 25 kilometres from Balasore when it hit a goods train from the behind. Just a few seconds later, Yeswanthapur Humsafar Express travelling from Bangalore to Kolkata on the adjacent track hit the detailed coaches of the Coromandel Express that has scattered onto its tracks causing the coaches to get crumpled and climb over one another. (Edited the timeline of the events in the accident as per the Railway notification issued in the afternoon)

Two long distance express trains and one goods train were involved in an accident, the horror of which is unimaginable! Visuals on television last night showed bodies lying on the ground, dangling from the windows with limbs missing and being in a remote location and darkness all around, evacuation process was very difficult. At 6 AM this morning, the death toll climbed to 233 with over 900 people hospitalised who were seriously injured. One can only wonder how many of these 900 people would survive!

Evacuation workers themselves are feeling demoralised. They are using gas cutters to get inside the compartments in the hope of reaching survivors but are only finding dead bodies with faces beyond recognition. Coromandel Express is also called ambulance train, as many people from Kolkata travel to Vellore on this train to get treatment. Who knew these people who wanted to get better treatment, get recovered, get their loved ones hospitalised would meet this fate last night!

233 is just the official number. The evacuation process is still going on this morning and bodies are being recovered every minute. The railway tracks got bent and entered into the coaches of the train — that tells you how strong the impact was! Human life holds no value and such tragic incidents are a reminder of it. Had the Kavach application been installed on the trains, the first collision could have been avoided which would have avoided the second collision too, but it looks like people are more concerned with luxury rather than safety. Hence, bullet trains and Vande Bharat Express are being launched one after the other, but the Kavach application, which was planned way back in 2012, has not been started yet.

Shared or mixed-use rail corridors” is the primary reason. Different types of passenger and freight trains operate at “common rail infrastructure” in India due to low capital cost and environmental factors. Broadly, there are 3 types of shared usage — shared track, shared right-of-way (ROW), and shared corridor. This means the goods and passenger trains share common rail infrastructure at multiple points with or without sharing common tracks.

When high-speed passenger trains are operated more frequently on shared-use corridors, the possibility of a collision between a passenger train and derailed equipment from an adjacent track increases. The severity of the accident multi-folds when another train derails and fouls the track on which a passenger train is operating, or alternatively if a passenger train derails and collides with a freight train on a nearby track - This is what happened in Odisha. One high-speed passenger train derails, and falls on an adjacent track causing another high-speed passenger train to derail and colloid with a freight train - causing multiple derails and collapse back to back.

Furthermore, the rail’s very high axle loads, commonly ranging from 32 to 40 tons put enormous stress on the track infrastructure. Although the infrastructure is designed for these heavy loads, components occasionally develop problems that go undetected until they fail and cause an accident. This is why the tracks got collapsed and bent, causing further damage to the rails.
Even though our HSR passenger lines have complete grade separation, shared uses of existing infrastructure increase the risks of a coalition.
Human error also plays a role, apart from mechanical and infrastructure-related reasons (which has to be revealed upon detailed investigation by the Indian Railways).
Improvements in railroad technologies and operating practices in the past decades have considerably increased a lot, however, different types of passenger train operations differ in various aspects, including maximum operating speed, train consist, braking ability, crashworthiness, and so forth. Furthermore, in shared trackage and right-of-way (ROW) operations, passenger train safety has also been affected by freight train safety on the same or adjacent tracks on which passenger trains operate.

In India, the majority of passenger trains run on or parallel to freight-specific infrastructures, and most of them are on shared trackage. So mainline passenger train accidents happened on shared-rail corridors - causing both passenger and goods trains to collide back to back.

Since a detailed investigation is underway, I hereby broadly list out some common possibilities for this fatal accident

The common accident cause

Turnout Defects Switches (Infrastructure-related)

Wide Gauge (Infrastructure-related)

Use of Switches (Human Factors)

Other Miscellaneous (Miscellaneous)

Track Geometry Excluding Wide Gauge (Infrastructure-related)

Broken Rails or Welds (Infrastructure-related)

The common reasons for accidents or coalition

Failure to Display/Obey Signals (Human Factors) - the rail operator failed to obey signals.

Train Speed (Human Factors).

Miscellaneous Human Factors (Human Factors) - human negligence

Track Geometry Excluding Wide Gauge (Infrastructure-related)

The common reasons for derailment

Broken Rails or Welds (Infrastructure-related)

Other Miscellaneous (Miscellaneous)

Wide Gauge (Infrastructure-related)

Miscellaneous Human Factors (Human Factors)

Obstructions (Miscellaneous)[1]

Infrastructure-related accidents are the most frequent at speed ranges of 0 to 19 mph, 40 to 59 mph, and above 60 mph, while human factors-related accidents are the most frequent at speed range of 20 to 39 mph. Infrastructure-related accidents and human factor-related accidents are more frequent than others at all speed bands.

At speeds below 20 mph, turnout defects switches are the leading cause of derailments and collisions,

While at speeds above 20 mph and below 40, failure to obey/display signals is the leading cause

Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced a detailed investigation of this fatal accident.

This analysis is important for the rational allocation of resources to reduce accident occurrence and consequences on shared-use corridors. This will also help us to quantitatively evaluate the risk from these causes and how these accident causes affect the likelihood of adjacent track derailments.