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Train-Lorry Collision

Fingers pointed at railway's negligence

Shaheen Mollah
Owners and drivers of trucks and covered vans at Kamalapur station's container depot have blamed the railway authorities' negligence for Monday's accident that claimed six lives.
Despite repeated requests for the last one month, the authorities didn't set up level crossing inside the depot where around 300 vehicles load and unload goods every day, they claimed.
Even the two signal lights inside the depot don't work properly, Jahangir Hossain, vice president of Bangladesh Truck and Covered Van Drivers' Union at the depot, told The Daily Star.
One of the linemen there corroborated his claim.
"It is true that the lights don't work properly," said lineman Jehran Hawlader who was off-duty when the incident took place.
It couldn't be confirmed whether the signal lights worked before the lorry collided with the passenger train on Monday. In a visit to the spot after the accident, Shipping Secretary Shafique Alam Mehdi found that there were no barriers to control movement of vehicles inside the depot.
He asked the authorities concerned to install barriers as soon as possible.
In a letter to the divisional railway manager the same day, Ahmedul Karim Chowdhury, deputy traffic manager at the depot, requested him to take necessary steps in this regard.
Though the railway owns the depot, the shipping ministry is responsible for its operation, said sources.
Seeking anonymity, a senior official at the depot said they had been requesting the railway to install level crossing inside the depot for the last couple of years. But the railway didn't respond.
Contacted, Tafazzal Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway, refused to comment on the issue.
Visiting the spot yesterday, this correspondent found that drivers and labourers at the depot were putting barriers with bamboos to control movement of vehicles inside the depot.
Defying warnings, the lorry of NS Cargo Ltd drove onto the rail tracks and collided with a passenger train inside the container depot on Monday, leaving six people dead and 15 others injured.
Two died on the spot and four, including a woman, at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. All were passengers of the train, coming to the capital from Narayanganj.
Talking to The Daily Star over the phone, Nazmul Islam, chief of the probe body formed by railway ministry, said evidence collected so far by the committee suggested that the lorry driver's recklessness led to the accident.
He said they already took testimonies of 17 people who include several witnesses.
About the installations that obstruct drivers' view inside the depot, Nazmul, also divisional transport officer of the railway, said he would make a recommendation for removing those structures.
Meanwhile, Maksudar Rahman, additional superintendent of railway police, said they were still trying to track down the lorry driver and his helper.
Police seized the lorry, and would ask Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to examine the vehicle's fitness papers, he said.