LAHORE: As death toll in Thursday’s train crash at the Walhar railway station rose to 23 on Friday, a railways team in its initial report held the Akbar Express driver and his assistant responsible.

The team comprises lower cadre technical staff and its report is called ‘joint certificate’ in the PR correspondence. Another investigation team working under the Federal Government Inspector for Railways will submit its findings later.

Putting the entire blame on driver Maqsood Ahmad and assistant driver Arsalan, the joint certificate said they were supposed to halt the Akbar Express at the outer signal but they overshot it and consequently the Quetta-bound train rammed into the stationary goods train.

A senior official present at the site told Dawn that investigation official found two relays of the interlocking system burnt that showed the signaling system was defective. He said staff at the Walhar station had made them operational temporarily by inserting match sticks in the equipment/instrument. “The staff did this probably due to shortage or non-availability of material that is used to rectify such faults in an appropriate way,” the official said, adding the system relays were also found to be tampered with during inspection.

The official said the on-duty points man whose prime job was to keep the points (Kanta) in order in coordination with the station master, was actually performing the duties of ASM at the time of the accident. He was unaware of the instructions/regulations issued by the PR after the 2005 crash between two trains at the Sarhad station in Ghotki district.

Driver insists signal was green; death toll rises to 23

“As the ASM was absent from his office, the points man was monitoring and operating the system (panel) to receive and depart trains. He received the train without settling the points that put Akbar Express on the loop line where a parcel/ freight train was already present,” he maintained.

He said after the 2005 train accident, the then inquiry team had issued instructions to all ASMs/SMs not to receive any train without ensuring settling of the points.

On the other hand, the injured train driver, while talking to a private news channel, insisted that the signal was green but the train was diverted to the loop line.

According to the official, the investigation team got arrested the Walhar station ASM after some people produced him before the senior officials. An FIR was also lodged against him.

“However, the points man, who was earlier detained by the railway police, was released for time being after the PR union representing the points men threatened to observe strike,” the official said.

According to him, if the system’s failure and other technical issues are described as core reasons behind the incident, many senior officers may face major punishments / penalties. “So by holding the poor driver and his assistant responsible, they may avoid such a situation,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2019