Visakhapatnam: The ill-fated Rayagada passenger train, which rammed into the Palasa passenger on Sunday evening killing 13 and injuring 32 passengers, ran at a speed of 80 kmph -- against the standard speed protocol of 15 kmph when signals fail to function.
As per the standard practice, when a signal shows red, the train has to stop. It can run at a speed of 15 kmph if the signal is yellow. In this case, the pilots maintained the 80 kmph speed and never stopped.
When they realised that a train was ahead on the same track, they were just 70 metres from the tail of the Palasa passenger train.
All the passenger trains reach a speed up to 70 kmph depending on the distance between two stoppages.
“Moreover these two trains were not fitted with Kawach or Crew Voice and Video recorder. The Waltair division has 37 locomotive engines and some of them were fitted with CVVRs,’’ the sources said.
A retired technical officer of Indian Railways said the trains run on automatic signal systems and on the Absolute Block System placed in many places. When a train arrives at a station, a green signal would be given to the train waiting in the previous station.
The signal posts are also set up between two stations. After a train crosses this signal, the one behind this train would be given a green signal.
This system is in place between Kiothavalasa and Vizianagaram stations.
“The pilot has to be alert when he sees a yellow signal. Four types of signals are shown. One has to stop at the red signal, pass through the green signal and be alert if the signal shows yellow. It might turn into red or green. Under this condition, the train has to move at a speed of 10-15 kmph. If there are two yellow signals, it indicates the next signal would be red and the pilot has to regulate the speed.”
In this accident, the Palasa passenger pilot slowed down after seeing a yellow signal and it later stopped.
The officials are probing whether there was a green signal due to technical fault or the pilots failed to see two yellow signals.
Another source said the Rayagada train pilot failed to respond to Kantakapalli station master’s alert through the VHS system. Two signals between Alamanda and Kantakapalli did not function on Sunday and the station master was alerting all the pilots.
The pilots of Palasa stopped the train following the station master’s alert. “It is not known why these Rayagada passenger pilots failed to get/notice the alert,’’ railway sources said.
