Train, bus collision kills 25 school children in Telangana

Mangalore Today News Network

Hyderabad, July 24, 2014: Twenty five schoolgoers and the driver of their bus were killed when the Nanded-Secunderabad passenger train rammed into it at an unmanned railway crossing at Chegunta in Masaipet village of Veldurthi mandal in Medak district on Thursday.

 

The children, aged between seven and 14, from Islampur and Zakeerpalli villages, were on their way to the Kakatiya Technol School in Toopram when tragedy struck at 9.10 am. While most of them were killed on the spot in the mangled remains of the bus, that was dragged for nearly a kilometer, others who were pulled out died on the way or succumbed to injuries in hospitals. There were 40 students on board the bus. The toll may rise as many of the injured are in a critical condition.

Nearby villagers, gathered at the accident site, accused the South Central Railway of having left the railway crossing gate, barely 70 kms from Hyderabad, unfinished despite repeated reminders of the flow of traffic. Grieving parents accuse the bus driver of speeding and negligence while crossing the railway line. But some eyewitnesses say that the bus driver did not notice the oncoming train and that led to the gory accident.

 

Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao has expressed his shock at the tragedy which also happened in his native Medak district. He deputed three ministers - T. Harish Rao (Irrigation), G. Jagadeeshwar Reddy (Education) and Padma Rao ( Excise) - to the tragedy site and the hospitals where the injured children were taken.

Accidents at unmanned railway crossings are common and in spite of several initiatives to place gates and have it manned the pace of progress is agonizingly slow.

Though the Indian Railways pride in being the world’s largest ferrying 20 million in 11,000 odd trains every day the safety record is wanting with accidents blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

An inquiry will now determine what led to the latest accident but it is likely to impact less on the negligence of the railways in installing gates and manning the 12,582 road - rail crossings across the country that are veritable death traps.