Railway Massacres Across the World

Railways have emerged to be the most popular and budget mode of transfer for both civilian and locomotive since its inception. People consider it safer compared to airways and waterways. But who can ever forget some of the deadly mishaps in railways that had led to inhumane casualties. Till date, the most memorable accident whose sorrow is still fresh in everyone’s mind even after a decade is the death of over 17000 common men in Queen of The Sea, Sri Lanka. The train was prey to the tsunami that broke out in December 2004. In the 19th century, hundreds of lives hadbeen victimized due to such derailment events be it due to brake failure or natural calamities.

Unforgettable Mishaps

In India, Russia, and the US, this frequency has spiked up since the last century. Derailments and collision are highly responsible for these accidents. In the US, train accident Manhattan has, unfortunately, become the monthly affair. Ninth Avenue Derailment is the worst ever accident that hit the city in 1905. It was again due to the high speed adopted in a low-speed elevated track. Again a decade later, Brighton beach-Line train crashed into the wall. It was driven by a not-so-well-trained young motorman Luciano. His reckless driving has already emptied the train by halves in the beginning stations itself. Being not an expert in travelling through complex hairpin curves, he had lost control of the engine and led to the tragedy. Since the last few years, subway trains became quite vulnerable to derailments. 2017 has witnessed one outrage after the other mainly due to its ramshackle infrastructure.

The aftermath of these Accidents

Innumerable deaths, the biggest casualty of such despondent events. This not only pauses the service for hours and delay the daily lives but also huge laborious task is required to get the affected tracks back to normalcy. It leads to transit problems across the entire region. Sudden fire, prolonged garbage on the tracks, hurricanes, flood and what not. These shaken riders have lost faith from the authority because of these frequent accidents. Each day, millions of people travel through subway rails. If the authority cannot assure safety, then train accident Manhattan will assume a big issue. Since there is no alternative to travel these routes faster by any other mode at the same budget, passengers are bound to travel at the risk of their lives.

Can this be Stopped?

Natural disasters cannot be stopped but can be forecasted beforehand and based on such data; journeys can be avoided through concerned routes. But how to curb the frequency of the accidents happening due to errors introduced by man. Sometimes it’s due to the negligence of the maintenance team, or due to a sudden technical fault. And the worst case is that of terrorism where bombarding of the entire train is the most common incident. Precaution is the only key to avoid such unfortunate eventualities.