India train drivers in crash that killed 14 were 'distracted' by cricket match

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• LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  cap

  Three carriages of the passenger train…derailed when a second incoming train rammed into it from behind… “Both the loco-pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the cricket match,” Mr Vaishnaw said…Both of them lost their lives in the incident…A preliminary investigation by the railway authorities immediately after the incident found that the train had overshot a signal.

  “Yeah, bro the two drivers who died were totes just 100% at fault and it had nothing to do at all with a larger systemic issue that might put me, the minister or the Indian govt. at fault for not improving the railway system. Nah, it’s just those poor drivers who were too busy watching cricket.”

  Railways minister Vaishnaw said new safety systems would be installed following the incident to “detect any such distraction and make sure that the pilots and the assistant pilots are fully focussed on running the train”.

  And that would solve the issues, trust. It’s the drivers, not the system.

  India has one of the world’s largest railway networks, which transports millions of passengers daily. But it has seen several disasters over the years… There have been several major accidents in the last 12 months, including a three-train collision which killed as many as 300 people in the eastern state of Odisha in June. Just last month, another incident on the railway saw a freight train travelled more than 70km (43.4 miles) without a driver. Footage on social media showed the 53-wagon train from Jammu and Kashmir zooming past several stations at high speed of nearly 100km/h, before arriving in Punjab. Officials told the PTI news agency: “The train was stopped after a railway official placed wood blocks on the tracks to stop the train.”

  Like… come the fuck on. Something clearly major fucked up is going on at a systemic fucking level here. I’m betting corruption. No doubt the drivers were not 100% innocent. But they’re dead so they’re being turned into the scapegoats, so people don’t look into all these other incidents. Many countries have very large and extensively used railway systems that don’t experience deadly crashes on the daily. Indians need to hold their politicians accountable.

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  • JoBo@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Many countries have very large and extensively used railway systems that don’t experience deadly crashes on the daily.

    India has ~one sixth of the global population; the railway system is enormous and systemically important (in a way that it isn’t somewhere like the US). I don’t know that you’re wrong but you can’t just cite the number of crashes without adjusting for the number of train-miles.

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