In the second train accident within a week in the State, 74 passengers were injured, four of them critically, when Delhi-bound Kaifiyat Express train derailed after hitting a loader between Pata and Achalada stations of the busy Kanpur-Delhi grand trunk route of North-Central Railway in the early hours of Wednesday.
Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar told media persons that Kaifiyat Express (train number 12225) derailed after a loader (HR63B-9175) carrying sand for track work on the dedicated freight corridor overturned on the tracks and the oncming train ramed into it. While NDRF teams were sent from lucknow, the rescue operation ended before they reached the scene.
Kumar said that 74 people suffered injuries. However, the Railways maintained that 25 persons were injured in the incident and that the dumper did not belong to them.
Two of the critically injured were shifted to Saifai while the other two to Etawah. Both train drivers received head injuries but no casualty was reported so far.
SP of Auraiyya, Sanjeev Tyagi, who has been camping on the spot and supervising relief and rescue, said that the loader overturned on the track and the rushing train collided with it around 2:40 am. Altogether eight coaches and the engine were derailed.
Secretary (Home) Bhagwan Swarup said, "The accident took place because of a loader carrying sand for track working for dedicated freight corridor. It overturned on a road parallel to manned crossing and came on the track which caused the mishap," he said.
Rescue operations were over and passengers werer moved to Achalda railway station and a rescue train arrived to take the passengers to Delhi.
The driver of the train told a TV channel that he got a green signal despite the loader being on the track. He said that after noticing the loader on the track, he applied emergency brakes which led to the derailment.
The driver of the loader fled the spot. Two derailed coaches overturned, blocking both parallel tracks. All trains going towards Delhi on the route were stopped at different stations.
Wednesday's derailment impacted train operations on the busy Delhi-Howrah route and five trains including Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express were diverted while seven trains including Kanpur-New Delhi Shatabdi express were cancelled. Since both Up and Down lines were blocked, around 40 local trains were also being diverted.