When will we learn ?
Dear Ashwini Vaishnawji ( Railway Minister )
Yesterday , there was a train accident bear 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 ) :
------------------------------
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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