Pakistan - railway incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

At least 65 passengers died when a train travelling from the Pakistani city of Karachi to Rawalpindi caught fire.

Minister for railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said the fire was caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder being used by passengers cooking breakfast.

The blaze is thought to have spread to at least three carriages.

According to officials cited in local media, many of the victims died as they tried to jump off the burning train.

Another 39 people have been injured, the region's deputy commissioner told BBC Urdu. Officials say the number of dead may still rise.

[broadgage]

Very sad, but an entirely foreseeable accident.
Did the train not have any communication cord or equivalent ? Presumably not, since prompt use of such would have stopped the train and allowed most of the victims to escape to the trackside.

[Witham Bobby]

Very sad, but an entirely foreseeable accident.
Did the train not have any communication cord or equivalent ? Presumably not, since prompt use of such would have stopped the train and allowed most of the victims to escape to the trackside.

A survivor who's TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) interview I saw last evening on ITN said that the emergency chain had been pulled

An horrific event.  The suggestion of the ITN report was that gas canisters used to fuel food cooking by passengers on-board had been "sneaked" onto the train, and that scanners to deter this practice are not present at all stations in Pakistan.

[broadgage]

Viewing* the chaotic and hugely overcrowded scenes that are very common on trains and at stations in Pakistan I doubt that much "sneaking of gas canisters onboard" is involved.
I have seen* no evidence of any scanning of passengers for such items.

The use of portable stoves fuelled by LPG^▸ (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) is very common and I suspect that such items are often of very poor quality.
Historically paraffin pressure stoves were used, often called Primus stoves though that is in fact a trade name.

LPG in poor quality, misused, overfilled, or damaged containers, and connected to poor quality or defective equipment is arguably a greater risk than paraffin.

*From viewing on television or on line, not via personal inspection.

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page), 7th June 2021

Two passenger trains have collided in southern Pakistan, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens more.

Officials said that one train travelling in Sindh province had derailed and landed on another track. A second train packed with passengers then collided with it and overturned.

Rescue teams took the injured to nearby hospitals and it is thought that several are in a critical condition.

Pakistan has seen a string of deadly train accidents over the past years.

Between 2013 and 2019, 150 people died in such incidents, according to local media reports.

[broadgage]

Early reports state.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66421481
Later reports may give more detail.