The Hindu : The speeding inferno

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 17, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

The speeding inferno

THE FRONTIER MAIL disaster epitomises the very worst of India, the tragedy brought about by a cruel combination of factors that include criminal negligence, disregard for safety, public contempt for the law and official apathy about enforcing it. That almost 40 people could have died in a train accident is horrible enough. The sense of outrage is further heightened because the victims were burnt alive due to a failure to follow the most elementary of rules — something that only highlights the bizarre (in fact almost surreal) nature of the accident and the fact that it could have been easily averted. The first thing to keep in mind here is that, in comparison with the worrying string of accidents that has plagued the Railways in recent times, the Frontier Mail mishap is one of a kind. This was neither the work of saboteurs nor the result of so-called `technical' glitches such as trains ramming into each other (because of problems with the signalling systems or human error) or trains getting derailed (due to problems with the tracks). The problem in the Frontier Mail was located smack within one of its coaches (S-4). Although it is not fully clear exactly what triggered the raging fire, the entire set of circumstances that resulted in it consuming two other coaches and charring so many people to death is truly shocking.

What caused the fire on the train when it was on the move near Ludhiana? If it was a burst cooking stove, as some reports suggested, what was it doing in the compartment? If it was a cigarette butt, as the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, maintained, then could the fire have spread with such speed and intensity in the absence of inflammable substances on board? The third hypothesis, which attributes the fire to a faulty electrical circuit, also requires an explanation about why the fire spread the way it did. Even if the cause of the fire remains something of a mystery, we have some idea of why it was allowed to cause the extensive damage it did. Passengers who escaped complained that faulty chain systems prevented the train from being stopped earlier. It took many fatal minutes before the engine driver discovered that there was a problem, an interval during which passengers had begun to suffocate and even started locking themselves in toilets in the vain hope of escaping the inferno. Eyewitness accounts have suggested that also responsible for heightening the damage were stacks of luggage in the entrance of coaches. The overall circumstances that resulted in the tragedy raise a number of elementary but disturbing questions.

Why are there not strict checks to ensure that inflammable substances are not brought on board? Why can't the rule to prevent smoking be ruthlessly enforced? What does it reflect when an organisation fails to ensure that the only mechanism of communication between passenger and engine driver is functioning? How can anyone have faith in a railway that cannot keep so rudimentary a device as the humble emergency chain in proper working condition? If the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, feels an iota of embarrassment, he would have resigned by now. The Frontier Mail disaster is one of a long and embarrassing string of railway accidents over the last one year and it is time someone right at the top owned moral responsibility for this wretched state of affairs. One of the important things highlighted by the landmark Delhi High Court ruling in the Uphaar cinema fire case is that if public safety is to be maintained, then the organisations responsible for such maintenance must be held accountable and slapped with punitive damages. The unfortunate thing is that those who administer the Railways sometimes behave as if the payment of ex-gratia to the relatives of the deceased is an appropriate or satisfactory response to an accident. If very little is done to prevent such disasters, it is because the country still lacks a well-established mechanism to make those who fail to enforce public safety norms pay for it — and heavily.

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