Mumbai: There are hundreds of accidents on the Indian railway network annually.
In 2012, a government report said that almost 15,000 people were killed every year crossing India’s rail tracks, which it described as an annual “massacre’ due to poor safety standards. Pedestrians guilty of “unlawful trespassing” walk across the tracks at many unofficial crossing points, the report said, adding that about 6,000 of the deaths occur in the congested and frenetic city of Mumbai alone.
Attempts to stop people riding on the roofs of trains have largely failed, vehicles routinely drive around barriers at crossings and passengers are often seen hanging out of open doors in the carriages. One of India’s worst rail accidents was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river also in Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.
