Bihar train accident: 4 dead, poor maintenance may have caused derailment

At least four passengers were killed and 30 injured after coaches of the Delhi-Kamakhya Northeast Express derailed near the Raghunathpur station in Bihar’s Buxar district late on Wednesday night, causing the diversion of 92 trains and the cancellation of eight.

Pillars, electrical poles, and signal posts besides both tracks were damaged at the accident site while trains on the New Delhi-Howrah main line were delayed as they were halted at separate places.

Officials said poor track maintenance or fault in the track changing point seemed to have caused the derailment. “The area is not known for any unlawful activities,” said an official.

The train derailed months after faulty connections in the automated signalling system led to India’s worst rail disaster in two decades. On June 2, 288 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in Odisha’s Bahanaga Bazar when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train before jumping off the tracks and hitting another passenger train in the opposite direction.

Officials identified three of those killed in the Bihar accident as Usha Bhandari, 33, Akriti Bhandari, 8, and Abu Jayand, 27, while the identity of the fourth passenger was yet to be established. They added most of the injured were undergoing treatment at Buxar, Ara, and Patna hospitals.

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who promised to find the “root cause of derailment”, was expected to visit the accident site.

The Kamakhya-bound train was one hour 40 minutes behind the schedule when the coaches derailed around 9.35pm after it left the Buxar station. A relief and rescue train reached the site around 1.30am. Officials said all the trapped passengers were evacuated and the derailed bogies were being put back on track.

East Central Railways chief public relations officer Birendra Kumar said an expert committee has started looking into technical aspects of the derailment. He added three coaches suffered maximum damage and deaths were reported from these coaches. “The railways has handed over the compensation to the families of the dead. The injured are also being provided the compensation.”