Lucknow, March 20: At least 38 people were killed and 150 injured when the engine and two coaches of a passenger train derailed in Uttar Pradesh Friday after the driver overshot a signal, officials said.
The accident took place at Bachharwan railway station near Rae Bareli town when the Dehradun-Varanasi Janata Express was going to Varanasi, an official statement said.
One of the two coaches that derailed was a sleeper class. The other was a general coach.
An official statement said the driver overshot a signal and ran into a sand bump, causing the derailment.
Among the first to reach the site were people from nearby villages.
When journalists too reached the place, furious locals raised slogans against the state and railway authorities, saying rescuers took a long time to start helping the injured.
Rescuers struggled to remove bodies crushed within the mangled coaches. Some bodies were pulled out from under the coaches, strewn on the railway tracks. Injured passengers were put on stretchers and rushed to ambulances, to be ferried to hospital.
“The number of casualties is likely to increase as the general coach has been completely flattened,” an official said.
Northern Railway officials have said that prima facie the train driver seemed to be at fault.“The train was to stop at Bachharwan railway station but did not. When he realised this, the driver applied the emergency brakes, leading to the derailment,” an
official said.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu expressed condolences over the deaths. The Railways ordered a probe. The Railway ministry announced compensation of `2 lakh to families of each of the deceased, `50,000 to the seriously injured and `20,000 to those with minor injuries. The Uttar Pradesh government announced similar compensation.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressed shock over the accident, which took place in her parliamentary constituency.
The accident disrupted train services on the New Delhi-Lucknow-Varanasi sector.
A special relief train has been rushed from Lucknow, officials said. IANS
