Black box may hold key to Samlaya mishap

VADODARA: Officials inquiring into the Sabarmati Express accident are pinning their hopes on the wireless conversations that transpired between various officials from Godhra railway station to Vadodara control room. It is a vital piece of evidence as the driver and assistant driver of the ill-fated train, along with 14 other people,were killed and more than 120 persons injured when it rammed a goods train parked in the loop line last Thursday, say officials.These conversations have already led the Government Railway Police (GRP) to evoke section 304 of the Indian Penal Code against the assistant station master at Samlaya, Y R Vankar. Western Railways superintendent of police Anupam Singh Gahlaut told TNN, "The black box will establish the role of each railway official who was on duty on Thursday morning. Possibility of more arrests on the basis of these transcripts cannot be ruled.We are in the process of closely scrutinising the conversations." Based on sheer calculations, railway officials had earlier stated that the station master had at least 30 minutes to stop the Sabarmati Express and pilot it across the Samlaya station. According to their calculations, the train was running 40 minutes late when it arrived at the Godhra railway station at 2.30 am. It left Godhra at 2.35 am and met with an accident at 3.12 am at Samlaya. They further add that to cover a distance of about 45 kilometres in 30 minutes the train should have been travelling at about 90 kilometres per hour. The conversations recorded in the 'black-box' reveal that the station master could have averted the accident had he personally inspected the failure of the automatic signalling system and the point. The 'blackbox' also holds a message from the Vadodara control room asking Vankar to stop the Sabarmati Express. According to the recorded conversations, the electric signal maintainer had informed the assistant station master about the signal failure at 2.37 am. The assistant station master had passed on the message to the Vadodara control room nearly 22 minutes after he received the message at 2.59 am. The Vadodara control room had immediately asked Vankar to stop the Sabarmati Express. The assistant station master did not follow the control room's instructions and preferred to rely on the message from his subordinate. The station master did not make an effort to personally inspect the flaw in the automatic signalling system, say railway officials.