Originally published on August 20, 2013
More than 30 people were killed when a crowd was crossing a railway track in Bihar State in India on Monday. The accident triggered a riot by passengers, who pulled the train conductor from the vehicle and assaulted him, while also attacking other staff and setting carriages on fire.
The accident took place at around 8:40 a.m. India time. Passengers, who were mostly Hindu pilgrims, had just disembarked from two trains at Dhamara station, 180 km (110 miles) east of Patna, the capital of Bihar State. A Rajya Rani Express struck the crowd as it approached on the opposite track. The express train was traveling at high speed, roughly 50 mph, before the collision, as it was not expected to stop at Dhamara Ghat station and was given clearance to pass through.
After the accident, the expressway train stopped a few hundred metres down the track, where an angry mob pulled the train conductor from the carriage and began severely beating him. Meanwhile, angry passengers lit at least two of the train carriages on fire.
Police and firefighters were deployed, but the angry crowd stopped rescue teams from reaching the site until hours later. Another train was also sent to help those injured, but was forced to stop on the tracks a mile away.
"About 40 people on average die every day on India's vast but decrepit railway network. Many of the victims are slum dwellers who live near the lines and use them as open toilets," according to Reuters.
The BBC reports that India's state-owned railway network operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries some 18 million passengers every day. A government-appointed safety panel said in a report last year that about 15,000 people were killed each year crossing train tracks in what officials call "unlawful trespassing".
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