A dramatic accident in India. On Wednesday, a suspected fire outbreak and the triggering of a fire alarm wreaked havoc on a train traveling in Jalgaon, one of the largest cities in Maharashtra, near India’s Pardhade railway station. The rumor of a fire on board spread like wildfire and panicked passengers jumped onto the tracks as a train arrived on the other track. At least 12 of them died and six others were injured, reports Press Trust of India.
“According to our initial information, there were sparks inside one of the Pushpak Express carriages due to a hot axle or stuck brakes, and some passengers panicked. They pulled on the chain and some of them jumped onto the tracks. At the same time, the Karnataka Express was passing on the adjacent track,” a senior railway official told Indian media.
The train was crowded at the time of the accident, according to Times of India. “There were a lot of sellers in our wagon,” says a 48-year-old survivor named Jagmohan Paswan. One of them shouted that a fire had broken out in a train car. A few seconds later, the train stopped and everyone rushed to exit through the two doors.” The man, one of whose relatives was injured in the head and legs in the accident, specifies that the dead and injured came out of the right side.
-Another witness said he saw “dismembered bodies on the adjacent road”. “I will not forget what I witnessed,” adds Md Mulin, 42 years old. The human toll could have been much worse if the driver of the train opposite had not stopped when he saw people getting off, according to the survivors’ testimony.
This tragedy is added to the long list of accidents that occur every year on the largest railway network in the world. In 2023, the collision of two trains in the east of the country caused the death of more than 280 people and injured around a hundred others. A heavy human toll which makes this accident one of the deadliest in decades. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is working to modernize the network, but there is still a long way to go to improve security.
