Kanpur, Pukhrayan, train accident: It is likely equipment failure being the cause f the accident, as per the sources the train accident might have been caused due to rail fracture.
This accident can be termed as the worst accident in the recent years, reports of 120 people already dead and over 200 injured. Fourteen coaches of the Indore-Patna Express had derailed at Pukhrayan in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh early Sunday morning.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety, Eastern, P K Acharya, who is probing Sunday’s accident, could be looking into the possibility of a fracture in the tracks as a possible cause of the accident, which led to the coaches to not only go off the rails but pile up, leading to high casualties.
Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, also told reporters that a fracture in the rails and jamming of wheels is suspected to have caused the accident.
At around 3 am, when passengers were fast asleep, the Patna-bound train jumped the tracks. Two sleeper coaches, S1 and S2, telescoped into each other, trapping several people. Most of the passengers were travelling to eastern UP and Bihar.
The train was running at 110 km per hour when the accident happened as per report.
This is the second derailment in two days as the four coaches of the Bhatinda-Jodhpur passenger train derailed yesterday at about 2 AM leaving a dozen passengers injured in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each of the next of kin of the dead and other ex-gratia packages.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who went to the accident site late Sunday afternoon, also announced a Rs 3.5 lakh compensation to each of the families of the dead, along with other smaller amounts for the injured.
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