We woke up to see horrid headlines of 61 people killed on amritsar train tracks and many injured as they wandered on to the rail tracks and were hit by a passing fast train. The event was not organised at that spot for the first time. Apaprently, the Ravana effigy was being burnt at the same place for quite some time. India Today said that :
- Neither the organisers (of the Dussehra celebrations these people were watching), nor the police administration had barricaded the tracks to stop people from venturing onto them
- Even though the exact number of police officials at the venue during the accident is not known, those present were busy providing security to the chief guest of the event Navjot Kaur Sidhu. Police officials and organisers ignored the security of the people.
- The driver despite the presence of the crowd, neither sounded a siren nor reduced the speed of the train which was hurtling down at 100 kmph. Raliway authorities have said the driver could not see anything because of smoke and he was negotiating a curve (are these not reasons all the more go slow and sound horn of the train ?). However, the driver did inform the station master of the next station of the people hit by the train.
- There was no lighting around the tracks. The rescue operation after the accident was getting hampered as the authorities had not arranged any floodlights to search the bodies and injured who were thrown by the speeding trains. Video camera lights and mobile phones are being used to search for bodies.
- A Tribune report quoted a local resident who said they have been requesting the authorities and their representatives in legislatures to talk with the railways and make sure trains are slowed down near this section of the track during Dussehra. “But no one has listened,” he lamented.
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