Amritsar tragedy : panel gives clean chit to railways

The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, who probed last month's Amritsar train tragedy, has given clean chit to the railways and blamed the public for their negligence.

"Having carefully considered the factual material and circumstantial evidences so far available at my disposal, I have provisionally come to the conclusion that the unfortunate incident of running over of 60 persons near Jaura-Fatak near Amritsar railway station of Ferozpur division of Northern Railways on October 19, 2018 at 6:55 pm occurred due to the negligence of persons reportedly standing on and near railway track witnessing Dussehra Mela at Dhobi Ghat," CCCRS S K Pathak said in his preliminary report.

Classifying the accident as "error in working by public near railway line", he also made a number of recommendations to avoid such accidents in the future.

In the report, the commissioner also said that the spot of the incident was not visible till the train was within 20 metres of the revellers due to the S-curve.

The report said though the permissible speed on this section was 100 kmph, the train was running at a speed of 82 kmph. When the loco pilot saw the crowd and applied brakes.

The incident took place at a time when there was smoke in the air due to firecrackers and burning of Ravana's effigy, the report said.

The Commission of Railway Safety comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and deals with matters pertaining to the safety of rail travel and train operation.