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Jul 14, 2008

Railway Police Planning Massive Drive

Inspector-General of Police, Railways, G.U.G. Sastry (left), with Railway Police officials in Coimbatore on Sunday. The Railway police are planning a massive drive that will help identify bodies of persons run over by trains. A website being created by the Railway Police will help people identify their missing relatives with the details of the accident victims provided on it, Inspector-General of Police, Railways, G.U.G. Sastry, told The Hindu here on Sunday. “Every year, 2,000 people die on track in Tamil Nadu. Of these, 200 are cases of suicide. Another 200 die of natural causes inside the compartments. But, the rest, 1,600, are those who get run over while crossing the track or when they fall off trains,” he said. And, many of the bodies in these cases went unidentified.

The website would also provide guidance to the public on avoiding accidents while crossing track or while boarding or alighting from trains. Mr. Sastry told presspersons after a review of the Railway Police functioning that he was here to also discuss how the Railway police could carry out a campaign on safety among the people. “Our aim is to reduce the number of accidents substantially. Chennai’s suburban train service section reports a large number of cases. Surprisingly, there are many cases in the Coimbatore-Podanur section also. As many as 400 cases have been reported in the last three years in this section.”
Carelessness was the major cause that led to accidents while crossing the track. “We have come across instances of people speaking over cell phone while walking in the middle of the track,” he said. Curves close to railway crossings obscured visibility and took a toll of lives. As for accidents while crossing the track, most of these cases occurred near human habitations along railway lines. “There are habitations on both sides. People from one habitation are run over by trains when they cross the lines to reach the other,” he pointed out. The Railway police would involve non-governmental organisations and National Service Scheme volunteers to sensitise people to the dangers of reckless crossing.
“We are also looking to popularise more our toll-free helpline 99625 00500 (easily remembered as 9962 500 500) that was launched in December last year”, he said. When people contacted this number, the control room, in turn, relayed it to 150 beat constables in the trains who had been provided with cell phones. The constables then rush to help passengers. Value-additions such as call divert and short messaging service facilities were added. Messages could be passed on to the sector officer concerned. Depending on the importance of the message, it could be passed on to higher officials.

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