At least 4 Dead and 80 Injured in Indian Train Derailment

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Facts

  • On Wednesday, at least four people were killed and 80 people were injured in India when an express train traveling from Delhi to Assam derailed at the Raghunathpur train station in Bihar. The cause of the derailment is not yet known.1
  • Anshul Agarwal, the district magistrate said that all 21 cars of the train had derailed with two fully overturned. Hospitals were notified of increased patients as nearby residents rushed to help passengers disembark the railway cars.2
  • A resident in the area described the train as traveling at a regular speed when they heard a loud noise from the train accompanied by a plume of smoke.3
  • On the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw gave his condolences to the loved ones of those killed in the accident and said that an investigation would take place.4
  • East Central Railway dispatched a replacement train to transport the stranded survivors. The relief train was dispatched on Thursday morning (local time).5
  • In June, India experienced one of the country’s worst rail accidents when three trains collided in the city of Balasore resulting in the deaths of 296 passengers.6

Sources: 1South China Morning Post, 2ABC News, 3Associated Press, 4Al Jazeera, 5Reuters and 6The Times of India.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by The Week. India has heaped a large sum of money into growing its vital railroad network and purchasing new trains but has failed miserably at increasing the safety of its network. Between 2017 and 2021, 100K people died in train-related accidents and in June of 2023, India saw its worst accident in decades. The Indian government must be held responsible for these safety failures.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Money Control. It is within India's grasp to make vital safety upgrades to parallel important modernization efforts for rail infrastructure. New Delhi's new model — to begin contracting out maintenance and construction as well as privatizing the rail network like in the US and the UK — will be a major help. These new practices will lead to significant improvements in infrastructure and safety for rail passengers.