Trains and Safety

 

 

 

Mathrubhumi
04.06.2013

Trains and Safety

Posted on: 28 Jul 2010

Muralee Thummarukudy

 

By international standards, trains are comparatively a safer mode of transport as against road transport. This is supported by a number of reasons. Trains have fixed track in which they travel and there is strict control over what else can get onto these tracks. Trains are driven by people who are trained and employed to do that job. You cannot have untrained or amateur drivers taking around their private vehicles along the railway track (as is possible in the case of road, water, or air). Trains and tracks are owned and operated by organized institutions that have a vested interest in maintaining the safety record. Consequently, they continuously improve design and operational procedures with a view to increase safety. The net result is that you get a much safer travel media in the rail traffic.

I have read somewhere that Indian Railways is the biggest Railway system in the world with tens of thousands of kilometers of track, hundreds of thousands of compartments, more than a million employees and many millions of commuters every day. From personal experience, I also know that is the most cost effective mode for long distance travel in India. When I travelled last yearwith Indian Railways, afteralmost a decade, Ifound thatall aspects of the system (punctuality, speed, conveniences) have increased. Of course one could always ask for and expect more butI have great admiration for the people who run this massive organization and deliver such services at very low cost to millions of people.

 

 I have no information about the precise accident statistics of rail transport in India (though I think it will be useful to present this information on the Indian Railways website and also in the Indian Railways Time Tables). However, some of the publications on safety of Indian Railways, which I could obtain from the Internet, shows that the accident statistics relating to the Indian Railways is showing continuous improvement, thought it is not mentioned how it compares with statistics of other railways around the world. I also have been reading that the Indian Railways is investing increasing amounts of money and focusing more attention on safety matters. This is indeed good news.

In spite of the above, not a week passes in Kerala where we do not have an incident of somebody getting injured or killed that involves a train in someway or other. It could be somebody falling off the train as happened with a young lady last week in Trichur or somebody being hit by a train as he was trying to rescue a cow that was standing on the tracks as happened last month. Though we have not, luckily, had dramatic train accidents in Kerala for some time now, occasionally we do hear about train accidents in other parts of the country, like the major accident in Sainthia last week. So, it is obvious that there is room for thinking about your safety with regards to trains too. In line with my earlier article, the focus of this article is about what you can do as an individual to improve your own safety than what the railways should do about it. Indeed, there is a lot that the railways can do, but that does not negate the need for you to be careful and vigilant about your own safety.

Crossing the tracks: I don't know the exact number of people who die every year in Kerala as they cross the rail tracks in the station or elsewhere. However, we do hear about such incidents regularly. It is not unfair to state that all these deaths could be prevented if only the concerned individuals (and families, when it involved children) were more mindful about their safety. According to one of the reports that I read, the Indian Railways has more than 60,000 km length of tracks, and while creating a wall all along this tracks to prevent people from crossing the tracks (as is the case with the famous bullet train tracks if my memory is correct) is theoretically possible, that will be both expensive and more obstructive to the life of people who live close to these tracks. So it is not unfair from the part of the railways to expect a bit more due diligence from the part of the people who cross the railways. Some simple such as the following precautions easily could save few lives:

One should never walk on the railway track, at any time of the day, even if you are living close to the line and is familiar with the timing of various trains. A repair vehicle or a goods train can suddenly appear from either side and smash you into smithereens before you have time to react.

At stations or any other locations where there is a provision for an over-bridge, always take the bridge however tempting the 'crossing the track' looks and however many other people are crossing the lines. There is no safety in numbers when it comes to crossing the tracks.

At locations where there is no over-bridge, you should always cross at a location where the track is visible at both sides to a safe distance. You should stop, observe both sides, and quickly move across. Once again, make your own observation and judgment and don't follow the herd like a sheep. Work within your comfort level.
If you are at a very long straight stretch and if you can see that the train is very far don't cross the track unless the train has passed. Your sense of judgment of the train's position, status, and speed is very likely to be wrong

Accident at Manned Level Crossings

As per the safety report on Indian Railways that I mentioned earlier, there are bout 20,000 manned level crossings and 16,000 unmanned level crossings on the Indian Railways tracks. The report says 16% of the accidents happen at unmanned level crossings, which is very understandable, considering the dangerous interface between road and train traffic that is not guarded on either side. What will amaze a safety professionals around the world is the fact that 4 % of the accidents happen at manned level crossings.

Of course, this will not amaze us who live in Kerala and occasionally have to cross railway lines. At the Edappally railway crossing next to the Amritha hospital (which I occasionally cross), traffic can back up up to kilometers causing hours of delay. So anybody who can jump the queue will cut to the front of the line. Even if the bars are down for the approaching train, people bend under the bars, including with their motorbikes, have a glance on either side, and quickly cross over to the other side, saving time. Of course, they score everyday over the hundreds of stupid people in the queue who wait for the gate to open. One day, their judgment will fail them and then they will cut the queue of millions of people in their journey to heaven. (In Edappally, you also see this very funny situation of a half-built overpass, which has been there for many years, I wonder why this has not been completed. There is a good reason, I am sure).

In Switzerland, where the railway network is extensive and where I travel by road a lot, there is no concept of manned level crossings. Instead they have an automatic system by which a bar will come down to block the traffic minutes before the train appears and will lift seconds after the trains have left. What is amazing about this system is that these bars only extend to one side of the road (meaning on a two-way road, the cross bar just bars the direction of traffic on each direction). If this system was introduced in Kerala, I can imagine not only bikes, scooters, and autos driving zigzag across these barriers, but also cars and tippers trying their luck. Yet you see nothing of that sort there. Though it may be that they believe less in God, nobody is in a hurry to meet their Lord either!!

In my articles, I have not been focusing on the need to obey laws because I take that as a given. So it is not for me to advice people that they should not sneak under the cross bar at a manned level crossing. People who willfully violate laws, such as exceeding speed limits, drink and drive, speak on the cellphones while driving, or don't put on helmets when they drive, will sooner or later pay with their health or life for their behavior. What I have been focusing is on behaviors that are strictly not illegal, and at times even intuitive, but have the potential to jeopardize your safety. I will therefore give the following suggestions regarding level crossings:

If you have to cross at a manned level crossing regularly and the delays are becoming unpredictable, look for an alternative route that even if longer is more predictable. The peer pressure and temptation to cut short is irresistible while in the queue, so avoid the situation to begin with.

If you are an occasional traveler, just factor this time into your travel plan than try to cut it short by taking risks.
At unmanned level crossings, trust only YOUR observations and judgment. Don't drive into the track just because the guy in front of you has driven through and the guy behind you is honking. You are basically in charge of your own safety. If the guy behind you is in a hurry, bad luck for him. You make your own observations, and when you are comfortable, that you can drive across safely, only then you move your vehicle forward,

Scrap dealers' dream

In every country I travel, I make it a point to travel by train whenever possible. This is for many reasons. First and foremost, you see lot more of the country when you travel by train. You also see more of its people, their life, and their diversity when you travel by train. It gives me a better sense of safety and control (there is an emergency stop button in the train, but not in an aircraft!). Finally, increasingly, I prefer rail journeys because it leaves a lower carbon footprint than road or air travel.

In all these travels that I made, which probably exceeds travel by trains in at least 25 countries, I have never come across a door as unique and solid as that of the Indian Railways. There are three features which make the doors in our trains unique. Firstly, they don't close automatically before the train leaves, which is the case in most modern railway coaches. Secondly, they can be opened while the train is in motion, which is not possible for doors in other trains in other countries. Finally, they are exceptionally heavy that if you are standing at the door and if the door closes on you with force, you can be seriously injured or even die even if the train is not moving. The doors of the passenger compartments in Indian Railways is a scrap dealer's dream and a safety professional's nightmare.

The consequence of a heavy door that does not close before the train leaves and can be opened while the train is in motion is a disaster. A number of the tragic deaths that we hear of is a consequence of this door design. I am sure there was a very good reason to have this design and few very good reasons to keep it going. However, this design has also created bad habits in our society which further compounds accidents. Let me illustrate few cases:

It is routine to see in our railway stations people getting into the train compartments to see their near ones off. It is equally routine that those who are travelling stand on the platforms with their families and friends before the train leaves. Every day, in Ernakulum South you see a dozen people jumping out of the train just as a dozen is trying to jump in through the same door AFTER the train has started moving. A number of deaths happen during this mad rush. In modern train designs, the train door closes before the train moves and nobody can get in or get out totally eliminating this risk.
As the train doors can be opened while the train is in motion, it gives people a possibility to jump in after the train has moved (e.g.. those who are late) and jump out even if the train does not have a stop at a particular place (this frequently happens in Aluva for express trains that do not stop here).

As a long distance rail traveler for many years, travelling 52 hours to Kanpur by the Kochin-Gorakhpur Express, it was routine to see people sitting or standing on the sills of the doors with the door open, for hours together. It just needs a jerk of the train as it passes a joint or takes a curve, for door to fling close on those sitting there, throwing them out to sure death. Again, something not possible in modern trains where doors simply don't open when the train is in motion!

When the train door is open while the train is in motion, one could be thrown off through the door even if they are not standing at the door but standing at the wash basin (placed right behind the door, yet another design feature) or passing to the toilet or going to another compartment. Once again, if the door remains shut while the train is in motion this would not have happened..

One could argue, and one should, that this particular design should be modified and our train doors should also be made safer like that in modern trains. However, remember we are dealing with the Indian Railways, which has about 400,000 passenger vehicles. So, even if the suggestion for a change is accepted, it will be a decade before we will have it implemented across the country. I can safely say that the scrap dealer who will be buying the last piece of this heavy door from Indian Railways is not yet born.

So the fact remains that there is a design issue with the door, which may one day get corrected, and is not going to help you or me who is travelling on the train today and tomorrow. So what can you do to save yourselves, and your family, during train journeys? The answers are self evident from the above observations, but let me state them explicitly.
If you are going to see off somebody at the station, DON'T get into the train with them. If they have heavy luggage or if they need assistance, take the assistance of a railway porter. Trust me, 99% of our railway porters are honest and the price they ask for their service is very modest. We are often worried to use their services because of our experiences with similar people outside the stations.

If somebody is coming to see you off, ask them to preferably see you off outside the station but in no case you should stand on the platform seeing goodbye to them. You get into the train as soon as the train arrives and wave from the window if you must.
Don't EVER sit or stand on the door sill while the train leaves the station or thereafter. This is a sure invitation to trouble
Be exceptionally vigilant while using the wash basin and hold onto something, to the tap if required. In any case, don't leave your children unattended while they use the wash basin or go to the toilet.

Avoid crossing the door area of the train to the degree possible while the train is in motion if the door is open.
Don't ever try to jump into the train or out of it while it is in motion. If you miss a train or a station that is no big deal. It might cost you few extra hours or few hundreds rupees more but compared to the shortening of your life or the cost of your lives, these are nothing. With everybody having access to mobile phone these days, there is not even a social reason to do something that stupid anymore.

Trust me, water at the train stations are safe!

Most of us believe that the water available at railway stations in our country is not fit for drinking. We buy bottled water or cola instead. I used to think that too, and in those days, there was nobody selling bottled water and our option was to have a big water bottle filled with safe water from home or hostel before we started our journey. In 1992, my friend Dr. M.G. Grasius, who was doing Ph.D. IIT Kanpur (currently principal of Vishwajyothi Engineering College), did an experiment. He collected water from every station from Kanpur to Ernakulam South and using a rapid detection method, checked the water for its bacteriological quality. The results were counter intuitive. Contrary to our belief and expectations, the water we collected from running taps in the railways stations across India, except one, turned out to be fit for drinking from a bacteriological point of view. (The exception was Ernakulam South, we were a bit ashamed by this finding!)

However, this perception has not changed even now. These days everybody buys bottled drinking water. It is demonstrated all over the world that the bottled water industry is much less regulated than drinking water supplied at public taps, and often the public tap water is safer. So people who are selling bottled water are basically feeding on your fear and lack of information. I can only imagine that quality of water served in the railway stations in India has improved as with every other service of Indian Railways. If I were to travel again on Indian Railways, I would therefore stick to the water taps or water taken from home than the bottled water you can buy.

Getting Sick on a train

Getting sick on a train is not really a safety issue yet I would like to touch on it because we often hear tragic stories of people getting sick, not being attended to, at times dying, and worse, not having enough support to get the dead bodies back to Kerala. All the above are difficult situations, to various degrees, and let us see what we as individuals can do to prevent it from happening and handling it if it does happen.

Indian Railways, being old and having had to deal with all sorts of issues, I am sure there are already procedures in place to handle each of the above conditions. I also read that in the latest Railway Budget speech that services of a doctor would be made available in each of the long-distance trains. I also read that Indian Railways is planning to start new medical colleges. I don't know if the plan of Indian Railways would be to train doctors who will then serve in the railways, including on long-distance trains. In any case, in line with my earlier prescriptions, we know that the situation is far from perfect at this point of time. And consequently, till the time things are all in place, you have to take responsibility for your health and those family members (or friends around you) if they are dependent on you. This means that you should have a reasonable understanding about their health status and ability to travel the distance you are intending to travel.

I would divide the health issues that arise during the train journey into two. First are situations that arise during the train journey (accidents, injury from an incident, stomach upset, etc). Second are those situations where a pre-existing condition (blood pressure, diabetes) gets worse. I am not referring to situations like fever, jaundice, or chicken pox getting worse during travel as one should never start journey with those illnesses or symptoms, whatever be the reasons. I am also not referring to those situations where you are undertaking the train journey with a patient with a view to get him expert medical advice (e.g. from Kochi to Vellore) because I am assuming you would be well briefed by doctors in such cases. For other situations, let me give you the following suggestions:

You should always a have a small medical kit with you that carry medicines for common ailments like fever, the stomach bug, and small burns and cuts, even if you are a healthy adult travelling alone. It is my personal experience that the very fact that you have access to medicines if need be increases your tolerance level.

If you or anybody in your care has a pre-existing medical situation, you should always consult your doctor prior to making the travel arrangements, explaining the duration and mode of travel and take their advice as to whether to postpone the travel or take any special precautions needed. This may include having access to specific medicines, special food, or request to break journey into two. With air travels not too expensive, if planned well in advance, I would suggest that long-distance travel with people of pre-existing medical conditions (which could aggravate) should preferably be done by air. This will ensure that the duration of period when you are unsure of proper medical care is minimized. The anxiety of long travel itself could aggravate the medical condition, especially in old people.

If, in spite of your precautions and medications, you are on a train and the situation is escalating, you should talk to the authorities on the train. In most situations, there will be doctors available on the train as passengers and TTE would be able to identify them (from their Dr. title, one of the reasons why I don't use my Dr. title as I am not a medical doctor and don't want some panicked passenger to feel, even momentarily, that I can help!). Once again, the very fact that you have assured access to a doctor, if needed, will keep the situation under control during the journey.

If a doctor is not available and the TTE suggests you seek medical advice at a station or the TTE is not being helpful, but you feel you need professional help, don't hesitate to break your journey. It is much better to bear the inconvenience of breaking a journey than to live with the consequences of not taking the right decision in the long run.

These days, most major stations will have modern medical centers in the city and with access to cash with ATMs, obtaining proper medical care is not a major issue. In most cases, tragedies happen because people wait too long either due to the inconvenience associated with breaking the journey or expecting the system to arrange for medical help without having to break the journey. Remember, it is your health and you are responsible for it. It does not help you if your allegation that the appropriate medical support was not made available by the system at the right time is true if the patient dies in the meanwhile. Your primary objective is not to teach accountability but to ensure proper healthcare.

Then there is the situation when you are travelling alone and you have to make all the judgments and decisions. These days, frankly, to me, this is a non issue. Everybody in the train has access to mobile phones and you can inform people who you expect to come to your assistance very easily. Basically, you should get over your dilemma of whether to bother them too early. Once again, err on the side of caution, that is the best policy. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, I would suggest that you have details of that and the medicines you take regularly available with you during any journey, just in case. (Recall the tragic case of a Kerala Government officer being picked up by police and suspected of drunken driving while what he was actually going through was a bout of illness. Correct knowlwege of his condition may have saved his life).

I will also add the situation where you are travelling alone or in a group and is involved in a major accident, like the one in Sainthia, you are not in a situation to inform anybody (severely injured, no access to phones, cash, etc), how can you maximize your chances of survival? This is where the first principle of journey management comes into play. Regardless of how short or how long a travel you make (be it on a bicycle to the nearby shop or by plane to the other part of the globe), there must always be somebody back home who knows at all times where you are travelling and when you will reach there. Once again, in this age of the mobile phone, it is not at all complicated for you to send an SMS to your wife/husband/brother/father when you board a train and when you reach the destination. So as soon as the news breaks on the TV about accident, your near one knows if your train was involved. If you are in the accident-stricken train, and you are safe or in a condition to use your mobile, please call home or your contact point as soon as possible telling them what happened, and your current condition. If you do not call, your contact point should immediately activate support systems to ensure you that you are tracked and the right attention is brought to you. If you already have established this position, you will also be in a much more relaxed condition if you are involved in an accident as you know help will come soon even if you could not inform anybody.

I want to tell you about the most tragic of all situations. You are travelling with your family and something happens and somebody in your group is dead. This is an emotional, procedural, and logistics nightmare and something which you are not prepared to handle. Here, as somebody experienced in this line of business, I am going to give you an impassionate advice which probably is not easy to swallow. Firstly, remember the person dead is near to you and the experience you are having is a once-in-a-lifetime event. However, for everybody else with whom you will have to deal (railway official, hospital, police, airlines), the person is just another 'dead body' and a situation that they handle periodically. So don't expect others to show the same respect, urgency, or attention that you want.

In 99% of the situations, you would like to take the dead body back to your home town as soon as possible. However, remember, death has given finality to the situation. There is no more 'hurry' to do anything. Yes, I am familiar with religious practices, which mandates the burial of the person as soon as possible, but in these days of international travel everybody understands the practical constraints and communities and religious leaders are flexible. Bodies of people who die in some middle-eastern countries are often released after months due to procedural reasons and our societies have learnt to live with that type of situation too. So if in your case, if takes an extra day or two, do not get agitated.

I know, from practical experience, that this is not easy for you to accept. Also, when you just had somebody dear to you dying in front of you, you are overcome by grief and often by guilt (I shouldn't have started the journey, I should have sought medical attention earlier, I could no give best medical care, etc.). You as an individual are therefore not the best person to handle all the procedures and logistics associated with sending the dead body back to your home town. You will be exhausted and agitated which upsets your judgment and makes you disproportionately angry. It will be really tragic if you end up with a police case in an unknown town of having assaulted a doctor, hospital attendant, railway staff, or an airline official over an argument about the procedures, timing, and protocol of handling the body. Remember, the body you are trying to handle is something dear to you, but for all other actors in the process, it is just another body and they may not share your anxieties.

It is therefore best that once death is confirmed, the procedures associated with handling of the body are NOT handled by those who are closest to the deceased. Instead, you should seek assistance from your friends, the local Kerala association, and if neither is available, request someone to arrive from your home town to handle these. If that takes 48 hours extra, let it be so. Remember, death is final and there is nothing more you can do for the deceased. Don't make the situation worse than what it currently is.

Drugging people

Getting drugged on train is not a safety issue. Not a month passes these days in Kerala without a case of a passenger being drugged by a fellow (con) passenger for the purpose of robbery. What amazes me is that even though we hear such stories every month, you still get new victims. It is like the case of 'visa thattippu'. You hear such stories everyday and wonder why people are not learning from other's experiences.

Deliberately drugging people for the purpose of theft is not a safety issue but a security one (in safety issues, there is no intention to do any harm) and my articles usually do not cover security issues. However, I will make one exception this time as many people these days consider the possibility of drugging a safety issue associated with train travel and I do have some good experience on this to share.

While the drugging incident is new to the Kerala scene, this is not new to Indian Railways. In 1988, I was sitting on the Platform No. 1 of Kanpur Central Railway station receiving delegates arriving for a national seminar when we saw a heavily built army person being pushed out of a compartment. He was standing, could barely walk, and had a blank expression on his face. Other than the army uniform he was wearing he had no luggage with him. Fellow passengers, who were trying to get him off from the train, told us that he was drugged and robbed in the train. They were worried that if he is not attended to he will die by falling off the train.

This was the first time I came across a passenger-drugging incident. If you are left drugged on an Indian Railway compartment, it is very easy to die because there are not enough systems in place to look after you and the structural reasons I mentioned. Unless you are in a group and your group members are not drugged not many people will break their journey to give you proper medical attention.

In this case, our solider friend had a happier ending. I knew that in every major north Indian railway station there is an office of the Indian armed forces called the MCO (Movement Control Office) to help and facilitate the travel of army personnel. With help of my friend who was also there manning the reception booth, we took him to the MCO who immediately identified him from his badge and instantly brought him the required attention. He was lucky.

Many other people are not that lucky. Most lose valuables, but more importantly, they end up drugged, their nervous system damaged, and occasionally falling off the train to death.

I once got interested in the history of robbery in North India (after I read the book by The Last Mughal by William Darlymple) and was told about their elaborate ways. It is a fascinating subject. Apparently, the tradition of robbery and dacoity goes back by centuries. In case of robberies, the technique of robbing by drugging predates the existence of Indian Railways. Pilgrims going to Banaras (Kashi) or Haridwar were their preferred targets. The robbers, who often worked with their families, would join the pilgrim caravan and befriend the targeted families en route. Those days, it must have taken weeks of walking to Banaras and so they had time. So these thugs, their families including children in attendance, stalked their victims for days. In this process, they achieved the confidence of these unsuspecting or even usually careful families. At an appropriate time they would drug the food of the families and decamp with their entire belongings. The drugs they would administer, in those days, were made of natural materials and were not fatal.

Anyway, the point I was making was that the practice of drugging people for robbery is not new in North India and has been there for sometime in Northern Railways. However, this seems to be a recent import to Kerala. What is worrying is that these days most of the thugs resort to allopathic medicines. Since the objective of the robber is to decapacitate the enemy as soon as possible, excessive dose is given which sometimes lead to fatalities even. So the risk has increased.

There is no real remedy to this situation except being eternally conscious of this possibility and constantly vigilant about you being made a target of attack. This, naturally, takes a certain amount of fun out of long-distance rail journeys as meeting new people, talking to them, sharing experience and food with them are all part of the cultural experience of the rail journey. However, if you want you and your family to be secure, it is best to ensure that you restrict your friendship to exchange of conversation and not food and drinks. Nor should you allow others to buy food for you.

Let me conclude this section with a fascinating story I read about robbery in North India, recounted in the famous book 'A Sorcerers Apprentice' (by Tahir Shah).

The hero of this book, grandson of an Afghan King, had read all about the conmen and robbers who operate on the trains in North India before he travelled to India from UK. As he got on a train from Aligarh to travel to Calcutta, he had packed all his valuables, including his passport and foreign currency, inside his luggage, attached it to the train seat. He dressed modestly in Indian dress so as not to appear foreign or a wealthy target. In the evening, a young couple, apparently just after their wedding, entered his compartment and sat across him. The girl was bedecked in gold jewelry and the guy appeared somewhat na�ve. So our hero explains to them the possibility of theft on the train and suddenly the couple is all worried. They are also very thankful to the hero for explaining this to them. The lady takes off all her ornaments, puts them into the bag and both the lady and husband are keeping vigil along with our hero.

Evening comes and the husband asks our hero if he would mind guarding their luggage and in particular the ornaments while they took a nap. Our hero, having decided not to sleep to avoid thieves, agrees readily. The bag with golden ornaments is entrusted to him for safekeeping and the couple goes for a good night of sleep. Past midnight the husband wakes up and asks the hero if he would like to take rest and he will do the vigil. Our hero agrees to this idea, only to wake up in the morning to find that the young lady, her husband and all his valuables, including passport, are gone.

So you never know how a trickster will gain your confidence and I can confess that even a safety expert employed by UN is no good match for good conmen. Your best bet is to be vigilant, at all times.

Be safe.

Muralee Thummarukudy is Emergency Management Expert with over 15 years of experience in Industry and United Nations. Muralee frequently blogs about safety issues at http://www.muraleethummarukudy.com
The views expressed here in are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.