LAHORE: “The signal was green and the freight train had no tail light,” said driver Abdul Rauf Shamoon of the Awam Express which collided with a stationary goods train near Multan on Thursday.

Shammon is the senior-most and best driver of the Multan Division of Pakistan Railways. He was recently awarded Rs2,000 in cash by the divisional superintendent for his competence.

The signaling system between Lodhran and Sher Shah junctions is on trial running. “We have lodged complaints with the authorities about the new signaling system but to no avail. Not applying brakes on a red signal means inevitable death. Will any sane person ever attempt to commit suicide?,” Shamoon told Dawn by phone.

Assistant driver Qaiser said that he and Shamoon attempted to apply emergency brakes (when they spotted the goods train) but could not succeed in halting the Awam Express because of short distance. A passenger train needs a minimum of 1.2km to halt in emergency.

“We took the charge of the train at Khanewal and were scheduled to take it to Rohri,” said Qaiser while adding both he and Shamoon had enough rest (before driving).

All Pakistan Train Drivers Association former president Nazeer Awan said the railway authorities had the habit of declaring loco drivers responsible for accidents even before commencement of inquiries. “The management absolves itself of all responsibility, putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the drivers whenever an accident occurs,” he said.

Awan also seconded the assertion of Shamoon that faulty signaling system had resulted in collision of the Awam Express with the stationary freight train.

He said that work to upgrade the signaling system between Lodhran and Sher Shah junctions was initiated some six years ago and it was yet to be completed. An official of the railways internal audit wing said that PR authorities had yet to respond to the objection pointed out during audit of the project to upgrade the signaling system between Lodhran and Sher Shah junctions.

“The total cost of the project was Rs17.4 billion. A sum of Rs12.5 billion has been paid to the contractor though the new system is partially operational at only seven out of 20 stations,” said the audit official while adding that internal audit of the signal project from Shahdara to Lodhran and the signal rehabilitation project from Bin Qasim to Mirpur Mathelo revealed that an amount of Rs 16.574 billion was wasted even before the commencement stage was reached.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2016