LAHORE: Karachi-bound 8-Down Tezgam Express collided with a heavy trailer on the main line, in Changa Manga section on Wednesday afternoon, leaving a number of passengers stranded in the ongoing hot weather and disrupting downward rail traffic for over three hours.

As per railway sources, the accident caused a massive damage to the locomotive, the trailer and a tractor that was loaded onto the vehicle. They said some railway installations along the track were also damaged in the accident.

According to Pakistan Railway’s Divisional Superintendent Amir Nisar Chaudhry, the incident took place at an unmanned level crossing – No-20 (between Changa Manga section/main line), about 45km away from Lahore railway station. When asked why the train crew (driver and his assistant) didn’t slow down the train despite seeing the trailer crossing the track, he said the driver tried to apply the brake but couldn’t avoid hitting the trailer as it apparently tried to hurriedly cross the track before the train approached there.

“It seems to be the fault of the trailer driver and the engine crew,” he said, adding: “Thanks God that none of the drivers and their assistants (of the locomotive and the trailer) received even a slight injury.”

The train driver later informed the divisional control office about the accident, that immediately dispatched a relief train to the spot. The relief train reached the spot at around 3:30pm after which the staff first cleared the track and then detached the damaged locomotive from the rake. Later, a new locomotive brought along the relief train was attached with the Tezgam Express to take it to its destination.

“After the relief operation, the train was dispatched for Karachi with the new engine,” the official said, adding that the relief operation took around three hours to complete.

There has been an alarming increase in the derailments and other fatal and non-fatal train accidents on the main and branch lines. Last month, two newly-married brothers and their wives were killed when a passenger train (Khyber Mail) hit their car at a manned level crossing at Pattoki.

PROTEST: The protest by Pakistan Railways’ locomotive shed workers entered its fourthy day on Wednesday against the government for not giving them a pay raise in the budget 2020-21.

Chanting slogans, the workers demanded the government to either increase their salaries by 100 per cent or bring down the prices of eatables at the level as before August, 2018.

SEALED: Various city administration teams on Wednesday sealed 67 shops and impounded 67 passenger buses and vans for flouting Covid-19 SOPs, according to a spokesman.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2020