• 33 injured; initial probe blames driver; minister orders thorough inquiry
• Official says ‘faulty carriages’ impede train’s ability to stop

LAHORE/BAHAWALPUR: The Karachi-bound Awam Express train hit a sand-hump and derailed on Sunday morning apparently due to brake failure, leaving a passenger dead and 33 others injured.

The initial assessment held train driver responsible for not stopping the train properly owing to over speeding.

On the other hand, the federal minister for railways ordered for a ‘thorough inquiry’, appointing the federal government inspector of railways, a senior position in the department, to probe the incident and submit a report.

The train was on its way to Karachi after departing from Lahore railway station in the evening.

When it reached near Lodhran, around 400km from Lahore, it received reception signals for Line No-5. But the driver, allegedly due to over-speeding, couldn’t stop and hit the sand-hump.

As a result, the train engine, four passenger coaches and a luggage van derailed completely. Some of them overturned, leaving a passenger dead and 33 others injured.

Soon after the accident, cries for help were heard from the derailed coaches as passengers remained stuck for sometime and later succeeded in coming out on their own.

Rescue-1122 reached the spot after some time and started shifting the injured passengers to the government hospital where one of them died. He was identified as Waqas, 37, from Khushab.

According to an internal document, while entering the Line No-5 the train overshoot and hit the sand-hump, leaving the locomotive and five coaches, including a luggage van, derailed.

A relief train from Multan was also called to reach the spot to remove the affected coaches and engine from the line in a bid to restore the rail traffic on Main Line-1.

As many as four trains, including 6-Down, 48-Down and 39-Up, delayed for hours.

The initial investigation held the driver responsible for the derailment. “Had he applied brakes well on time, he would have averted the crash. We have reached a consensus that he failed to stop the train on Line No-5, left with no option but to enter the sand-hump,” it concluded.

On the other hand, a senior PR official held faulty passenger coaches responsible for the accident and requested the federal minister for railways to thoroughly get this aspect investigated.

“In fact, the reports mentioned on papers are different than the practical [situation]. On paper, this train had one dummy coach [the coach without brake]. But I think it is not correct, because if there is one dummy among 12 coaches, the driver would have succeeded in stopping the train without any issue. This means, there were around 5/6 coaches that were dummy but not mentioned in the papers as faulty,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.

Talking about the rolling stock, he said a number of passenger coaches and goods’ wagons are not up to the mark, leading to frequent derailment incidents.

The Federal Railways Minister, Hanif Abbasi, while presiding over an emergency meeting, reprimanded officers for not doing well for the safety of passengers.

The minister also ordered the officers to ground dummy coaches from the railway system and if there is need to stop operation of any train, it must be done. “The officers must come out of their AC offices and inspect the rail track, rolling stock etc,” he said.

According to rescue 1122 media coordinator Muhammad Safdar, 11 passengers were rendered first aid on the spot, while 22 seriously injured including six women, were taken to DHQ hospital, Lodhran.

A press release issued by Multan Railways division, 21 passengers suffered injuries and out of them two were taken to Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH), Bahawalpur.

Divisional Superi­ntendent Iftikhar Ahmed of Multan Railway division, who also rushed to Lodhran Railway station, told journalists that the down track has been cleared and the derailed bogies have been removed after 10 hours’ struggle.

Despite derailment on the down railway track, he said, the railway traffic has not been suspended and Awam Express passengers were sent to Karachi by the Hazara Express.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025