Vidarbha Express collision near Kasara

At least 70 passengers were seriously injured after Vidarbha Express collided head on with a local train coming from Kasara between Umbermali and Kasara ghat around 9.30 pm on Thursday.

Railway sources said the driver of Vidarbha Express saw a local train on the same track when the train neared Kasara ghat. “He immediately applied the emergency breaks but could not avert a head-on collision. In the process, the coupling of the S-10 and S-9 coaches got detached, and the S-10 coach climbed on to the S-9 coach.’’

Nitin Pakhale, a passenger travelling in S-10, said the passengers in the other coaches, police and local people pulled out those trapped inside the damaged coaches. “There was no light; rescue work was difficult amidst continuous raining. No one was found dead but blood was coming out from a toilet.’’

Coaches of the Kasara local were also derailed.

A release from the CR public relations office said, “Four coaches of N-30 Kasara-CST local derailed between Kasara and Umbermali on Kalyan-Igatpuri section of Mumbai Division of Central Railway at 9.30 pm on Thursday. The Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express, which was going towards Kasara, hit the derailed coaches on the Dn line, resulting in derailment of the engine of the Vidarbha Express. Medical Van ordered immediately. Senior railway officials have rushed to the spot to supervise relief arrangements.’’

Train collision: traffic to be restored by tomorrow

Kasara: The traffic on Kalyan-Kasara section of the Central Railway in Thane district of Maharashtra, affected due to the collision between an Express and a local train last night, will be fully restored by early Saturday morning, a top official said.

One person was killed, four were injured seriously, and nine sustained minor injuries when Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express collided with derailed bogeys of a local train between Kasara and Umbermali last night.

Officials had put the death toll at three earlier, whichwas later revised downward to one.

“We will open one of the two lines by Friday mid-night and the second one by Saturday morning,” Central Railway General Manager Subodh Jain said at the accident site.

In the meanwhile, some of the long-distance trains will run via Manmad.

According to Jain, the mishap occurred after the loco pilot of Vidarbha Express applied emergency brakes on spotting the derailed local train on the the tracks.

The time lag between the derailed local train coming to a halt and the collision was only 1.17 seconds, and the loco pilot did the best possible thing by applying the brakes, he said, adding that this resulted in one of the bogeys of Vidarbha Express piling up on top of another.

Asked if anti-collision device could have averted the incident, Jain said, “It is very unlikely for an automatic system to be effective even in the slim time lag. Manual intervention was the best possible action in such situation.”

I hope and pray everyone to be all right.. It was a big accident that happened last night near kasara.

Source: TOI