Chennai: Deaths on railway tracks in Chennai Railway Police division have seen a gradual decline from 1,878 in 2013 to 1,681 in 2015. This year, 778 deaths have been recorded so far, as per Government Railway Police (GRP) statistics.
These deaths include those being run over by trains, deaths while on journey and trespassing. Even though deaths have reduced, the number of people booked for trespassing has not shown a steep decline.
Avadi, Tiruppur and Salem districts recorded an increase in deaths on tracks and a huge number of trespassing cases last year. Crossing of railway tracks is an offence under Railway Act, amounting to trespassing punishable with a fine of Rs 1000 and / or imprisonment up to six months.
“But this has not left masses being aware of the danger and they still prefer crossing tracks than using subways or foot over bridges,” said P. Vijaykumar, SP, Railway Police.
“Every Friday, with help from college students, we issue pamphlets at all suburban stations to passengers, conveying the safety concerns of crossing railway tracks,” he said.
Anti-accident wing of GRP at certain stations with the most number of deaths has to ensure that people are diverted against using shortcuts and railway tracks for crossing.
“Caution boards which depict gory images of victims killed on tracks by trains, have been set up at some station points used frequently by trespassers, but even that doesn’t deter them,” said another GRP officer.
The work of GRP doesn’t end there. If a body remains unidentified even after 48 hours of the incident, it is termed as unidentified, and one officer per district liaises with local police to establish the identities. The numbers of unidentified dead bodies in Chennai RP division were 657 in 2013, 467 in 2014, 477 in 2015 and 186 till July this year.
