At least 10 schoolchildren and their driver died while 15 were injured when a train rammed into a school van at a level crossing in Mian Channu on Wednesday morning.
The tragic accident also sparked a blame-game between the district administration and railway authorities. The latter accused the van driver of gross negligence while the former said the railway man at the crossing was missing and that it was also without a gate. It said the driver could not see the train coming because of fog. Had there been a gate or the railway man present there, the accident might not have taken place, it said. The railway minister, however, denied there was any fog and blamed the van driver for the accident.
A school van carrying 35 children was on its way when the Jafferabad Express coming from Quetta rammed into it at the Musa Virk level crossing at 8:15am. The van driver apparently misjudged and tried to cross in haste and the four-wheeler came in front of the train.
There was a state of emergency in the Mian Channu and Khanewal DHQ hospitals. At least 24 children were brought to the THQ hospital of Mian Channu and five of them were received dead while four of them died from excessive bleeding. Fifteen injured students were rushed to Multan’s Nishtar Hospital where one of them died on arrival. The van driver succumbed to his injuries in a Mian Channu hospital.
Agencies add: Those died were identified as Syeda Lubna Batool, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mishal Javed, Faisal Zahoor, Tanveer Ahmad, Safdar Hussain, Amir Zahoor, Muhammad Ejaz, Dilawar Hussain and driver Muhammad Shaheen.
The injured were Haziq Ehsan, Wajiha Ifitkhar, Jawad Jamil, Zainul Abideen, Syed Mushaf Hussain, Syed Maheen Batool, Sajjad Ali, Aliza Nawaz, Abdul Daim Javed, Isaac Kinnath, Daud Asher, Nadeem, Shahzad Ahmad, Tanveer Hussain, M Azhar and Shahzad Ahmad son of Niaz Ahmad Anjum.
The railway man who was supposed to be present at the railway crossing was arrested for dereliction of his duties. The Punjab government has announced a compensation of Rs 200,000 each for the families of those died and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have expressed sorrow over the death of the children and ordered investigation into the accident. The president has also ordered strict action against the railway officials responsible and directed the railway minister to ensure safety measures at all the level crossings and take measures to avoid such accidents in future.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also expressed grief over the accident. DCO Qazi Ashfaq Ahmed said the railway employee was not on duty at the crossing and there was also no gate. He said the van driver could not see the train because of fog. He blamed the local railway authorities for negligence. He also revised timetables of all the schools during foggy days and now they would open at 9:45am and close at 2:30pm instead of 8:30am to 2:00pm.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, while expressing grief over the incident, said that an inquiry had been ordered into the incident and those responsible would be taken to task.
During a press conference in Islamabad, the federal minister said that the accident had taken place in morning and there was not much fog at that time and visibility was not poor. He said the van driver had totally ignored the signal while crossing. A train at a speed could not be stopped by just applying the breaks, he said, adding even if the emergency breaks are applied, the train still covers some distance before coming to a halt, he said. The driver in this particular case had applied the breaks but could not stop the train.
Answering a question about gates at crossings, the minister said that they cost too much and were not feasible. Even then such accidents cannot be ruled out completely, he said.
Bilour said that the only way to stop such incidents from happening was to build flyovers and underpasses. He also announced Rs 500,000 each for the families of the victims and Rs 200,000 and Rs. 100,000 for those minor and critically injured, respectively.
However, talking to Geo News, he said it was for the city government to install the crossing. A general manager of the railways too gave the same version. On the other hand, the DCO said it was railways’ responsibility to install gates and man the railway crossings.
Given the diametrically opposed versions of the minister and the district administration, one can say the schoolchildren fell not merely to some fatal error of judgement on part of the van driver, but also to the oblivion of the state officials who were found shifting blame to each other. Their naivety was so obvious when they took divergent positions, totally forgetting that the railways is a century-old institution and the rules are not so vague as to leave the masses guessing who is responsible for their safety.
A large number of locals also took out a rally and blocked the railway track in protest against the accident. They said they had complained to the DPO, the DCO and the EDO time and again that the crossing was without a gate but they did not heed to the complaints.
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