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In My View

Deaths at level crossings: How many will be too many?

Published : Friday, 5 August, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1133
Syed Badiuzzaman
Just about a week ago, a tragic accident at a railroad crossing in Chittagong took the lives of at least 11 young men and injured about half a dozen more. Most of them were students and they were returning home in a microbus after visiting a waterfall in the area. But high spirits suddenly turned to tragedy as a speeding train hit their vehicle with full impact at the crossing.  

The high-speed express train pushed the vehicle at least about half a kilometer down the tracks before it came to a complete stop. But by then a huge tragedy occurred. About a dozen lives were lost almost instantly and another half a dozen suffered serious injuries - ranging from life-threatening to critical. The driver of the vehicle also died in the accident and the microbus was badly twisted under the impact of the crash.  

The accident was reported quite widely by various Bangladeshi newspapers but what were not reported so much were the eyewitness accounts of the tragic incident. And then there were significant differences in the accounts of the eyewitnesses giving rise to a lot of confusions with regard to exactly how the fatal crash had occurred there that day. There are still a lot of missing pieces of the puzzle about the incident which can be fully known only after a thorough investigation.

So, we must not jump to any conclusion until the investigation which has already begun into the tragic accident is completed. There were conflicting reports in Bangladesh newspapers with regard to the circumstances that led to the train-microbus collision. One Dhaka newspaper reported that there was no attendant at the railroad crossing when the accident happened during the Friday prayer time and the bamboo barrier at the crossing was up meaning it was still open to vehicular traffic.

Another Dhaka daily also reported that the level crossing was unmanned during the time of the accident but it presented a completely different circumstance leading to the tragedy. Quoting an eye witness account, this newspaper reported that the crossing was closed with its barrier down. And finding no attendant there at the time, the passengers of the microbus pushed the barrier up for their vehicle to pass through and right at that moment the train rammed the microbus.

If this version of the incident is true, then we need to do a lot of soul-searching among ourselves. Let us assume for a moment that the level crossing was unmanned for some reasons and the gate was closed blocking the road for all vehicular traffic during the time of the accident. In such a situation, the barrier though it was just a breakable bamboo should not have been forcibly pushed up by the microbus passengers at the level crossing for their vehicle to pass through.

That was dangerous and it should not have been done whether there was an attendant at the level crossing or not. Let us again assume just for the sake of discussion that there was no attendant at the crossing and the barrier there was down during the time of the accident. By lowering the barrier for that particular time, the attendant did the right thing because it was a time for train passing. But those who pushed it up thought that it was down there unnecessarily. It is up to the authorities, however, to look into whether or not the attendant can leave his gate while on duty for any reasons.   

But regardless of the circumstances that led to the fatal crash, last Friday was really a very sad day for Bangladesh. The country lost a dozen young men who were just in their 20s. What a tragedy! These young men had just begun their life. They had their whole future ahead of them. And they all had their dreams just like once we all had while we were in their age group many years ago. But one fatal accident shattered all dreams as well as the hopes and aspirations of their parents. Most sons and even daughters nowadays support their families aside from living their own lives.  

Bangladesh has grim statistics about fatalities at level crossings. With the death of 11 young men last Friday in Chittagong, a total of 35 people already lost their lives this year due to accidents at various rail-road intersections in the country. Statistics show that the problem has been continuing unchecked in Bangladesh for many years despite repeated assurances by the authorities to increase safety measures at the level crossings to prevent accidents. As many as 739 people lost their lives in accidents at railroad crossings in Bangladesh in last 13 years, the Daily Star reported.

Authorities of relevant ministries and departments of Bangladesh government jointly decided early last year to take several measures to enhance safety at level crossings across the country to prevent accidents but Friday's fatalities of so many young people in Chittagong proved that the rail-road intersections are still a very much death trap sometimes for people. But side by side with the government's efforts to improve safety at and around level crossings, the people have a bigger responsibility to use their commonsense and take precaution for their own safety before crossing railway tracks.

In the Canadian province of Ontario, the motorists are ordered to slow down as they come to a railway crossing and listen and look both ways before crossing the tracks. The motorists must be certain that they can clear the tracks completely before crossing. It is illegal and dangerous to drive around, under or through a railway barrier or gate while it is down, being lowered or being raised. The motorists are also ordered to never race a train to the crossing while a train comes. They are also asked to slow down, stop at least five meters off the nearest rail or gate and wait, if there are signals, until they stop flashing. And if the crossing has a barrier, the motorists must wait until it fully rises.

However, this doesn't mean that no accidents take place at the railroad crossings in Canada. Yes, they do. In the Greater Toronto Area or GTA, a city of 6.3 million people, there are as many as some 50 level crossings and accidents do take place from time to time despite adequate safety measures and public awareness and responsibility. There is an annual average of 49 accidental deaths on the Canadian railway network with a peak in 2005 when 35 accidents occurred in the province of Ontario alone. The figures of the US are far more depressing. Each year in the US, about 5,800 train-car crashes occur causing some 600 deaths and injuring about 2,300 people. But America is a vast country where there are 209,765 level crossings and there were 276 million vehicles registered in the US as of 2019.

Unlike US and Canada, Bangladesh has only 961 legal level crossings in the country. These crossings should be well managed with all kinds of safety measures in place. However, the country has also 1,361 illegal railroad crossings which should be either legalized and properly managed by the government or permanently closed considering public safety. In any case, the government alone cannot guarantee complete safety to the people. The people too have a very important role to play in using their commonsense, protecting their own lives and obeying orders not flouting them.  
The writer is a Toronto-based
journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist.







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