Whose mistakes are accidents at unmanned railway crossings - administration or those crossing them?

Whose mistakes are accidents at unmanned railway crossings – administration or those crossing them?


Media and politicians are busy discussing about the Sania Mirza controversy. But hardly any one is seen discussing the other important matter where in a school bus was hit by a speedy train at an unmanned railway crossing in Medak district of Telangana. At a time when the ministers are talking loud about the high speed bullet trains in their budget, it is utterly shocking to see precious lives being lost in such a dreadful incident. So who is responsible for such a sad accident? Whose mistakes are accidents at unmanned railway crossings– administration or those crossing them?

Administration

• People have the habit of breaking rules and therefore administration should not neglect their duties of appointing the guard at railway crossings.

• Taxpayers are not evading the taxes and paying the money right at time, why, just to allow such incidents happen? Definitely not.

• Administration doesn’t consider the lives of people important. For them just the votes of people are important.

• It is the first duty of administration to appoint the guards at such places where the probability of accidents is higher.

• Administration is talking about the new world of bullet trains when it is not able to manage the traditional form of transport. How will it manage the new system?

• Who knows if it is just the lack of guard or the other important things like barricade or the signals?

People

• Educated or uneducated people, both have the common sense that it is necessary to stop at red signal at unmanned railway crossings.

• It is the people who cross the unmanned crossings who are at fault as they try to do the same even if there is a guard at place.

• Many a times people traveling by foot or by bicycle try to jump over the barricade kept to stop them while train is going to pass by.

• It is the utter carelessness of people who don’t find it important to check whether the train is approaching the railway line or not.

• Talk about a simple traffic signal where traffic lights are there, traffic police are there & still people don’t find it important to follow the rules. So what can the administration do to handle such people?

Conclusion

In the case where the train hits the bus at unmanned crossing in Telangana, it seems to be the fault of the bus driver. Apart from the particular case, it is the responsibility of the people to check the running trains before they cross a railway line. It is just like crossing a road where people need to first look left then right and then again left to cross the road. Safety starts from individual level and then it is passed to the administration.
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    Discussion

  • RE: Whose mistakes are accidents at unmanned railway crossings – administration or those crossing them? -neeraj agarwal (08/20/14)
  • I think she is right both are equally responsible as everyone should take care of his or her own life than why should people put their life in danger to save just 2 or 3 minutes so they should be aware & keep in mind that it is not possible to appoint guard or police man at every such sort of railway crossings.

    In some foreign countries the crossing closed just before 30 seconds of arrival of train and they opened automatically after 30 seconds so this all takes 2 or 3 minutes and there is no traffic jam is there but here in India it crossing closes before 20 to 25 minutes and opened after 2 or 3 minutes so this takes half hour or sometime it takes some hours so people think they have enough time to cross and they tries it.

    so i think administration should take action in this regard.
  • RE: Whose mistakes are accidents at unmanned railway crossings – administration or those crossing them? -Deepa Kaushik (07/26/14)
  • Both the administration and the people those who are crossing the railway lines are equally at fault resulting in the fatal accidents leading to loss of lives. The unmanned railway crossings do have the signals controlling them and they are set up by an automated barricade to stop the trans-commuters. The administration could have definitely allocated the person in every such crossing, as we have a huge manpower in our country who are very busy searching for the employment. Employing a few of them could run a few families and we an avoid the accidents.

    On the other hand, people do have some moral and social responsibility. Every person is gifted by common sense which they need to utilize at times of need. People portray themselves to be in much hurry so as to get late in waiting for the barricades to open up following the passage of train. Many a times the youngsters do break the rules in fit of their warm blood, which penalizes their life.

    Hence, people do need to take care of themselves and guide those around them, to avoid the accidents from occurring. Human beings should use up their sixth sense and avoid these accidents, otherwise they would be no different from other species on earth.