A Railway Accident

Man is the creator of machines. He has created them for his convenience and comfort. As long as he maintains mastery over them, all good well. But as soon as the machines gain mastery over man, they cause havoc. The machines gain this mastery over a man when he becomes slack and indifferent. This is how a railway accident which I am going to describe took place through human failure.

It so happened that I was traveling from New Delhi to Amritsar by the Dadar Express. It was running on time. There was no rush on the train and all the passengers were seated in their seats comfortably. I was sitting in the last but one compartment. As the train reached the outer signal of Panipat, it was still running at a fairly good speed. Soon there was a terrible jerk with a loud smashing sound. Suddenly, the train began to move at a snail's pace and soon it came to a grinding halt. One could hear in the early morning peace loud, agonizing wails and cries. The passengers were suddenly startled. Some of them struck against each other or against the walls of the train and received injuries. Those who did not receive major injuries, at once jumped up from their seats, looked out, and alighted from the train. I too had received a severe jolt and a minor injury and followed suit.

There were noise and confusion all around. I could not make out what had actually happened. Then I can to know that the Station Master of Panipat had given the down signal to our train wrongly when a goods train was already there on the track. The driver of our train tried hard to avert the accident by applying brakes forcefully. But it was too tough and too late.

It was learned that the driver and cleaner of our train had died on the spot. More than twenty persons traveling in the first compartment behind the engine had also died. The relatives and the companions of the dead were crying and beating their breasts. The number of injured was more than one hundred.

The Station Master of Panipat along with a team of doctors arrived at the scene in no time. The mildly injured were let off after first aid. Those seriously injured were taken to the hospital. The dead bodies were taken for post mortem. I reached home by a bus full of sadness.