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AMRITSAR, India (Reuters) – Indian railway officials and local community leaders on Saturday accused an accident in which a train crushed dozens of people gathered on the tracks for a festival in Amritsar, a city in New Delhi. north of the country.
People gather at the scene of an accident after a high-speed commuter train passed through a crowd on the railway track Friday in Amritsar, India on October 20, 2018. REUTERS / Adnan Abidi
The head of the Punjab state government, Amarinder Singh, told reporters Saturday that 59 people had died and 57 injured in the accident and that an official investigation would be conducted over the course of four next weeks.
A large crowd had formed near the tracks on the outskirts of the city to torch effigies as part of a large Hindu festival on Friday, when the train went through the meeting in the dark, said officials and witnesses.
Family members and distressed residents, some of whom were still lashing the bloody fields in search of items belonging to their relatives, said the train had not been warned while he was coming down. the railway as firecrackers exploded in the sky at the annual Dusshera festival.
"I saw this event all the Dussheras from here and it had never happened before, the railways should have stopped or slowed down the train," said Deep Kumari, who watched the festival from the terrace of his House. "Everyone here knows that this effigy is burned and that there is a large crowd."
The Indian railways, built largely under British colonial rule, have long been criticized for their safety performance. Critics say the fact that the 23 million passengers who use the network daily use the network on a daily basis to keep fares low has resulted in decades of underinvestment in rail safety infrastructure.
Data from the parliament in July showed that 49,790 people had been killed by track trains in India between 2015 and 2017.
Friday's crash is the worst in years, but Manoj Sinha, the junior minister in charge of managing the world's fourth-largest rail network, said they could not be held responsible for people on tracks.
"The railways can not be blamed, the railways were not informed of the ceremony. Why was he organized there? The railways have not been warned, "he told reporters as he went to the scene early Saturday, surrounded by officials and police officers.
Clothes were scattered and there were traces of blood around the narrow railroad track on the outskirts of Amritsar where the accident occurred. Police said they were still trying to figure out the number of dead, with some bodies being mutilated without any recognition.
Video footage on television and social media showed giant effigies in the distance and crackers during the passage of the train in the foreground. Many victims shot videos on their mobile phones or took selfies.
Witnesses also testified that Friday's ceremony was delayed by a few hours because of the delay of the main guest, which meant that the event eventually coincided with the scheduled arrival of the train.
The anger turned on Navjyot Kaur Sidhu, a former legislator from the Punjab state who arrived late for the cremation of the effigies and then left just before the accident.
Bikram Singh Majitha, leader of the Akali Dal regional party, said that the effigy of the fire usually occurred at sunset, not later.
"You can see on some videos that people have turned that as soon as the effigy has been lit, you can see the train coming from the other side. It was horrible, the organizers have to explain why this delay, "he said.
But Kaur, whose husband, Navjyot Singh Sidhu, is a former Indian cricketer and now minister, said that effigies were burned at six locations in Amritsar and that most of them were in fields near the tracks.
"The (railway authorities) should at least have issued instructions to slow the speed of the train. Such a big mistake, "Kaur said on television.
Written by Sanjeev Miglani; Edited by Sam Holmes
