Saturday, February 11, 2006

Railways becoming a scary, deadly ride

July 13, 2005
Ghotki, Pakistan


An express train heading from Lahore to Karachi slams into the rear of broken down Quetta Express at a station near Ghotki, about 600km (370 miles) north-east of Karachi.

A third train travelling in the opposite direction, heading from Karachi to Rawalpindi - the Tezgam Express - then hits a number of derailed carriages, which were scattered over several tracks.


More than 132 passengers died, in addition to many hundreds injured. The accident is officially included into worst railway disasters ever.

January 29, 2006
Jhelum, Pakistan


At least six people died and 40 others were injured when a train travelling to Lahore from Rawalpindi plunged down an embankment near the city of Jhelum.


There were more than 600 passengers on the ill-fated train - one of Pakistan's fastest. It was a sheer miracle that most of them survived.

February 4, 2006
Bahawalpur, Pakistan


A woman was killed and 37 were injured after 10 coaches of the Lahore- bound Karakoram Express derailed with four of them being overturned on early Saturday.


The derailment, which railway officials termed sabotage, occurred at 3:15am between Samasatta and Kalanchwala railway stations.

The four overturned bogeys included two air-conditioned lower class, one economy class coaches and a dinning car. They fell off the eight-foot high track embankment.
Eyewitnesses said they heard a loud crash as the train derailed.

February 10, 2006
Kotri, Pakistan


A train carrying chemicals hit an oil transporter near the town of Kotri, 110 miles (180km) north of Karachi. The collision started a fire which destroyed several wagons but nobody is believed to have been hurt.


At least 17 containers and an engine of two goods trains of the Pakistan Railways (PR) were badly damaged in an accident between the Meting and Bholari railway stations in Thatta district, about 27 km from Hyderabad district, on Friday, causing a loss in millions of rupees to the PR. However, no casualty was reported.

At 12:40pm a powerful explosion was heard when the goods train rammed into some stationary oil wagons as a result of which the containers caught fire immediately. A thick cloud of smoke could be seen all around. Six of the wagons were reduced to ashes.


Sources:

Dawn Group Pakistan
BBC World
CNN
GEO TV

22 comments:

Raheel Lakhani said...

do these accidents have any connections with each other?

AsianSmiles said...

so sad to hear...
i echo raheel's question..

Anonymous said...

yea we all saw some worst one recently and the thing is the no of accidents... increasing every year

Rose said...

What's going on with these trains wrecks? Could it be sabotage? This is so very sad.

Trailady said...

Terribly sad! Seems to be happening to often to be coincidence. Who would do such terrible sabatage?

Nabeel said...

dang.. this is sad

Sana said...

its really sad!totally a mass destruction!

Asad Raza said...

Oh my God, the railway infrastracture in Pakistan is in need of a massive overhaul!

Van Cong Tu said...

Sorry about this, too bad.

Hasan Mubarak said...

raheel: There are several connections including a poor & ill-repaired railway signal & track infrastructure and ignorant railway staff.

asiansmiles: Yes, there's a connection, expecially, among the latest three that are supposed to involve sabotage.

jawwad s: Only if they donot repair and increase security, the situation's going to get worse.

rose: There are signs of sabotage linked to some foreign elements.

trailady: Many internal & external elements have been involved in such sabotage incidents in the past. The Govt.'s trying hard to find the culprits.

nabeel: Yup! It's sad.

sana: A train with more than 600 passengers derails and only a few are dead; It's a miracle!

ray-zor: Especially when we have a whole Railway ministry for the task. A massive over-haul is inevitable to avoid such incidents in future.

godknows: It really is...

Meadow said...

My goodness, that's awful. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Brea said...

How terrible!

Anonymous said...

Extremely sad...and tragic..wish they would maintain those rail tracks consistently if these accidents continue...:S...see ya.

Royce said...

horrible, can you imagine how many families are affected by thes tragedies.

Bart Treuren said...

hasan, it's appalling and so sad, the loss of life in such tragedies...

then again, the lives of so many people, compromised by global politics is even a scarier and so deadly ride... too many lives are lost on the battlefields of global politics...

keep well...

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

Sorry. I'm just catching up on this. Hopefully policy makers and railway officials are leading the charge to prevent these tragic accidents.

AsianSmiles said...

MrH, just dropped by to say hi. Is everything ok...?

Meadow said...

Hasan, I'm just dropping in to say hi. Hope all is well.

Peace

black feline said...

sad news BUT i must commend u for your diligence and research.well done! u will certainly be a great investigative journalist! Could it be a faulty railway system and aged trains?

Asad Raza said...

Salam Hasan, where have you been? Haven't heard from you in a while. Take care!

Bart Treuren said...

hasan... are you going to update soon?

i've been growing a beard in the meantime and it's quite long by now :P

i just hope your life's being good for you... keep well..

Nabeel said...

I think pakistna's railway system sucks .. there have been cases when the accident was head-to-head .. I mean how much can you screw up? I've been hearing about these railway accidents since I was a kid .. dang someone needs to get fired .. proper people need to be incharge

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