West Bengal: Local tran rams into stationary coach at Howrah junction; no injuries reported

An EMU local train hit another stationary train from behind near Haur station of South Eastern Railway today, but nobody was injured, an SER spokesman said.

The incident happened on the Howrah-Panskura section, nearly 80 km from Howrah station.

"No one was injured as the EMU local was moving at a very slow speed and hit the stationary train before coming to a halt," SER spokesman Sanjoy Ghosh said here.
None of the trains were damaged either, he said.

At 2.42 pm, a Medinipur-Howrah local stopped behind a goods train near the home signal of Haur station in an automatic signal zone. Another EMU local on Balichak-Howrah route was also travelling in the same direction and was behind the Medinipur local.

Instead of stopping about 75 metres behind the preceding train as per rules of an automatic signal section, the Balichak local came to a halt after hitting the Medinipur local, Ghosh said.

"The motorman (driver) of Balichak local has been suspended and a high-level inquiry has been ordered," he said.

Explaining the rules of train movement in an automatic section zone, the SER spokesman said: "Trains can follow one after the other as per automatic signalling aspects." "If the signal is red, a train is supposed to stop one minute in day time and two minutes at night, after which it can proceed with 15 km per hour speed restriction, keeping a 75 metre distance from the train ahead," Ghosh said.

"The Balichak local, however, failed to stop at a safe distance behind the stationary train and hit it before stopping," he said.