Falling from trains or collisions with people on track have emerged as major reasons for the most number of deaths reported in the railways system last year, says the latest government data.
A total of 27,987 cases of railway accidents were reported during 2019 which injured 3,569 persons and 24,619 deaths, said the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
A majority (76.3 %) of railways accident cases occurred due to falling off moving trains or getting run over while trespassing on tracks (21,361 out of the total 27,987 deaths in 2019), it added.
With a large number of deaths due to falling from trains reported in Mumbai suburban trains, NITI Aayog has been asking the Indian Railways to take steps to prevent this, including installing sliding doors in trains.
There were 1,788 level-crossing accidents in 2019, up from 1,408 in 2018. Last year, level-crossing accidents killed 1,762 people, while the year before it claimed 1,507 lives, the report says.
Uttar Pradesh reported maximum level-crossing incidents (851 out of 1,788 cases) accounting for 47.5 % of these incidents, the data showed.
The railways has been taking a number of steps to reduce such incidents by eliminating unmanned level crossing either by manning them or building flyovers or subways.