When will we learn ?

 

 

 

Dear Ashwini Vaishnawji  ( Railway Minister )

 

Yesterday , there was a train accident near Balasore in which 233 persons got killed ( as of this writing ) and 900 + got seriously injured. On TV , you were seen examining the accident site with railway officers

6 years ago, there was a similar train accident in Andhra Pradesh which killed 41 persons . That made me send following e-mail to our Cabinet Ministers

I have no clue whether any of my suggestions ( in that 6 year old email ) ever got implemented or not . But , please do NOT implement any “ Inquiry “ ( High-level or Low- level )

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

www.hemenparekh.ai  / 03 June 2023

 

Sunday, 22 January 2017

 

Why always a " High Level Inquiry " ?

 

 

Yesterday , there was a train accident in Andhra Pradesh when 41 persons died

This was the THIRD such serious train accident in past 3 months

 

May be twentieth such accident in past 10 years

 

Railway Minister has ordered a " high level inquiry " ( apart from usual ex-gratia payments )

 

Being an ignoramus, I wondered, " Why a high level inquiry ? Why not a low level inquiry ? "

 

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks !

 

All those previous " high level inquiry " reports are already on the server of the Railway Ministry , in word format

 

All that the committee appointed for this purpose has to do is :

 

*  Change the Date / Time / Location of the accident

 

*  Change the name of the train

 

*  Change the appendix carrying the names of the victims

 

*  Change the names of the members of the Inquiry Committee ( mostly unnecessary ! )

 

*  Change the date of submission of the report

 

 

In fact , by the time the Members of the Inquiry Committee return to Delhi , after inspection of the accident site , the departmental data-entry operator has already made these changes and kept the print out ready for the signature of the Members !

 

 

Now , who says , Railway Ministry is inefficient ?

 

 

Should however, Shri Suresh Prabhu be interested in a " LOW LEVEL SUGGESTION " for " how to prevent train

 

accidents " , I request him to read once again , my following email ( 20 Nov 2016  ) :

 

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A Case of Misplaced Priority ?

 

 

 

Yesterday , there was a terrible train accident near Kanpur

 

 

As per latest reports , some 100 persons got killed and around 100 got injured

 

 

Government was quick to announce a compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to the kin of those dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured

 

 

So , to the Government , apart from the loss to the property , the ECONOMIC LOSS was , approx Rs 2.5 Crore

 

 

And if someone were to fight this case in the Courts ( for next 5 years ? ) , the Court might award Rs 1 crore per dead ( loss of earning capacity at Rs 2.5 lakh per year for 40 years )

 

 

That would add another Rs 100 Crore of " Economic Cost ", to the government

 

 

But what about the  EMOTIONAL  LOSS of the bereaved family  ?

 

 

It is just not possible to attach a monetary value to the life-long sufferings of those families

 

 

I believe , we have lost ( on ave ) , some 50 lives to major train accidents , each year for the past 22 years ( not counting ave of 10 persons who get run over by Mumbai local trains , EVERY  DAY  !  )

 

 

View this in the background of Government plan to spend Rs 1,00,000 CRORES , for a Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmadabad, which will transport 600 persons in 2 hours , in place of the current travel time of 8 hours

 

 

So , what will we gain for this enormous " Economic Cost " ?

 

 

Some people will save 6 hours of travel time !

 

 

Even as 50 persons continue to die each year in train accidents , which are , largely preventable !

 

 

And , very likely , implementing technological solution for saving these lives  would cost , less than Rs 1,000 cr  !

 

 

 

Major causes of train accidents are :

 

#    Fractured rails ( as is suspected in the present case )

 

#    Loose anchor bolts

 

#    Sagging rails due to washed out foundation

 

#    Jammed track-switching mechanisms

 

#    Faulty Signals...etc

 

 

And , of course , " human errors of judgment "

 

 

 

How come such train accidents rarely happen in Developed / Advanced countries , despite the fact that their trains run 2 / 4 times as fast as ours ?

 

 

Simple answer :

 

 

They have implemented technological solutions ( Data Acquisition Devices and

 Software ) , which , not only monitor / detect the " faults / failures " described

 above , but , they alert the train-traffic management team in real time , on large

 screens in their TRAFFIC  CONTROL  ROOM

 

 

And , if the person watching that TRAFFIC  FAULT  SCREEN , is slow to respond (

 to take a corrective action ) , the software will bring the train to a halt , on its own !

 

 

If our ISRO scientists / engineers can detect a tiny fuel leak in our rockets /

 satellites , from thousands of kilometers away ,- and make course correction in

 milliseconds ,  there is no reason to doubt their capability to find a technical

 solution to prevent train accidents

 

 

I have no doubt that Shri Suresh Prabhu will re-arrange his priorities  !

 

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