Train-truck collision: Prompt reaction saves man from deadly crash
Bhuro Kolhi managed to jump out despite driver’s assurance of managing to cross tracks
PHOTO: APP
HYDERABAD/TANDOJAM:
Bhuro Kolhi, a survivor of Sunday’s tragic accident between a train and a Mazda truck in Matiari district that killed eight people, considers himself lucky for seeing death in the face and still surviving.
It was his good sense that guided him to escape the tragedy physically unscathed.
Unlike the other victims seated in the partially open rear side of the truck, Kolhi did not misjudge the approaching train’s distance while passing through the unmanned crossing.
“After spotting the train’s headlight, I heard the driver shout that we can get to the other side before it (train) reaches them,” he said. Unconvinced of the driver’s calculation, which proved to be a fatal misjudgment, Kolhi jumped out of the truck which disappeared from his view in the blink of an eye as the Lahore-bound 37-UP Fareed Express, moving at full speed, ripped apart the vehicle and some of its passengers.
Pieces of the vehicle were whisked away several hundred metres while one of the bodies was found nearly a kilometre away from the point of impact.
Four people were also critically injured in the incident, according to police and rescue officials.
The truck was carrying the victims, mostly labourers, from Darya Khan Nahiyon village to Shahmir Rahu village, their new place of work.
Who’s to blame?
Although the driver’s recklessness and miscalculation is likely to blame for the tragedy, the provincial government’s delay in erecting gates and posting staff at the crossings is also being blames by locals. “We carried out a joint survey of vulnerable crossings in Sindh in 2013. Some 44 places were identified and 13 were shortlisted in Karachi and Sukkur [railways] divisions. But none has been established so far,” said Nisar Memon, Karachi division superintendent of Pakistan Railways.
According to Memon, the onus for constructing gates on a crossing and manning it with staff lies with either the local administration or the provincial government.
An official of the Pakistan Railways, who requested anonymity, said in light of the joint survey, a PC-1 was moved on May 9, 2014, by the railways and Sindh Highways Division to the provincial government. “Forty-four railways crossings on vulnerable spots, including 17 on main lines and 27 on branch lines, will be constructed at a cost of Rs565.411 million,” he informed.
After the chief minister approved the project in January 2015, only Rs5 million was earmarked for the project last month.
Inquiry
Meanwhile, Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind ordered an inquiry on complaints of locals who claimed gates and staff at the Sipio crossing were recently removed.
“The complainants say the crossing was gated. But it seems they are confused as there are two crossings in close proximity. The one they are referring to is the Mureed Sipio crossing,” DSP Matiari Aurangzeb Abbassi, incharge of the inquiry, told The Express Tribune. The road over the crossing where the accident happened was constructed four to five years ago but the gates were never installed, he claimed.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2016.
Bhuro Kolhi, a survivor of Sunday’s tragic accident between a train and a Mazda truck in Matiari district that killed eight people, considers himself lucky for seeing death in the face and still surviving.
It was his good sense that guided him to escape the tragedy physically unscathed.
Unlike the other victims seated in the partially open rear side of the truck, Kolhi did not misjudge the approaching train’s distance while passing through the unmanned crossing.
“After spotting the train’s headlight, I heard the driver shout that we can get to the other side before it (train) reaches them,” he said. Unconvinced of the driver’s calculation, which proved to be a fatal misjudgment, Kolhi jumped out of the truck which disappeared from his view in the blink of an eye as the Lahore-bound 37-UP Fareed Express, moving at full speed, ripped apart the vehicle and some of its passengers.
Pieces of the vehicle were whisked away several hundred metres while one of the bodies was found nearly a kilometre away from the point of impact.
Four people were also critically injured in the incident, according to police and rescue officials.
The truck was carrying the victims, mostly labourers, from Darya Khan Nahiyon village to Shahmir Rahu village, their new place of work.
Who’s to blame?
Although the driver’s recklessness and miscalculation is likely to blame for the tragedy, the provincial government’s delay in erecting gates and posting staff at the crossings is also being blames by locals. “We carried out a joint survey of vulnerable crossings in Sindh in 2013. Some 44 places were identified and 13 were shortlisted in Karachi and Sukkur [railways] divisions. But none has been established so far,” said Nisar Memon, Karachi division superintendent of Pakistan Railways.
According to Memon, the onus for constructing gates on a crossing and manning it with staff lies with either the local administration or the provincial government.
An official of the Pakistan Railways, who requested anonymity, said in light of the joint survey, a PC-1 was moved on May 9, 2014, by the railways and Sindh Highways Division to the provincial government. “Forty-four railways crossings on vulnerable spots, including 17 on main lines and 27 on branch lines, will be constructed at a cost of Rs565.411 million,” he informed.
After the chief minister approved the project in January 2015, only Rs5 million was earmarked for the project last month.
Inquiry
Meanwhile, Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind ordered an inquiry on complaints of locals who claimed gates and staff at the Sipio crossing were recently removed.
“The complainants say the crossing was gated. But it seems they are confused as there are two crossings in close proximity. The one they are referring to is the Mureed Sipio crossing,” DSP Matiari Aurangzeb Abbassi, incharge of the inquiry, told The Express Tribune. The road over the crossing where the accident happened was constructed four to five years ago but the gates were never installed, he claimed.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2016.