Turna driver was possibly drowsy

The driver of Turna Nishita Express was possibly drowsy when the train rammed Udayan Express in Brahmanbaria’s Kasba yesterday, said the head of a probe committee formed by the railways ministry.

“Our primary investigation has found that Turna Nishita violated the signal. It seems to us the driver of the locomotive was drowsy,” Mohammad Nazmul Islam, chief operating superintendent of the railways (East), told The Daily Star over phone.

Relatives of victims in tears. Photo: Masuk Hridoy

He said if a driver fails to notice any signal, it is the responsibility of the assistant locomaster to alert him. Besides, the guard at the train is also duty-bound to notice the signal, he said. 

“But in this case, we found that all three failed to obey the signal,” said a top railway official, wishing not to be named. 

Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan told The Daily Star that they believed the driver of Turna Nishita and his assistants were responsible for the accident that left at least 16 dead and scores injured.

“We did not find any fault of Udayan Express or the line and signal system,” he said, adding that Turna Nishita’s driver Taher Uddin, Assistant Locomaster Apu Dey and guard Abdur Rahman were suspended.

Taher and Apu sustained injuries in the crash and were being treated at a hospital.

Talking to The Daily Star, Md Miah Jahan, additional director general of Bangladesh Railway, said the accident took place as a result of a “human failure”. “There was nothing wrong with the signal.

“The train violated the signal and rammed the other in less than a minute.”

He also said Udayan Express was coming towards a loop when the speedy Turna Nishita disobeyed the signal and badly rammed a compartment of Udayan Express around 3:00am. “We believe most of those killed were in that compartment.” 

He said a few other coaches of Udayan Express were also hit.

An official of the railways’ operations department said Turna Nishita disobeyed three signals -- the outer, the home and the advance starter.

“It is unusual because the driver couldn’t have overlooked three signals had he been awake,” he said.

There are chances that the driver’s assistant and the guard were drowsy as well, he said.

The government yesterday formed five committees to investigate the fatal train accident.

Bangladesh Railway authorities formed three of the probe committees while the other two were formed by the Ministry of Railways and the Brahmanbaria district administration.

Between 2013 and May this year, 115 people were killed and 295 others injured in train-related accidents across the country, according to railway sources.