500 deaths in four months: The deadly railway tracks

The death toll at railway crossings and railway tracks that come under the Secunderabad Railway Police limits has crossed 500 already.

On an average more than 100 people die on railway tracks. According to senior railway police officials the reasons are many. At least 10 per cent of the deaths could be attributed to carelessness. Many get engrossed with headphones and do not hear the sound of an approaching train.

Several die on tracks trying to crossover at railway crossings. The dangerous spots are Khairatabad level crossing, M S Maktha level crossing, Uppuguda level crossing, Kandikal Gate level crossing, Falaknuma, Borabanda and Jamia Osmania.

The proposal for erecting fences abutting the tracks was put forward to the South Central Railway (SCR) by a former superintendent of Railway Police in 2012 but nothing has materialised. Senior police officials say that many accidents could be averted if fencing is erected at vulnerable spots.

S Chandrasekhar Reddy, superintendent of Railway Police, Secunderabad, says, “Crossing tracks in a drunken state, use of headphones, trying to board a running train lead to several deaths. A number of awareness campaigns were held but there is still a need to reach out to people to be more careful.”

Another trend is the dumping of dead bodies on the tracks. In several cases it is found that murderers leave the bodies on tracks to make one believe that it was a suicide. A senior police official said that after investigations it comes to light that it was not a case of suicide.