Amritsar Train Tragedy: Train was honking without a pause

By - Siffer Nandi & Apurba Banerjee
KOLKATA: The Amritsar-Howrah Mail reached Howrah at 3.45pm on Sunday, eight-and-a-half hours behind schedule, having crossed the accident spot in Amritsar barely minutes before tragedy struck on Friday evening.
Passengers — who witnessed the track-side Dussehra celebrations only to learn later that another train had mowed down at least 59 revellers watching a Ravan effigy burning — were still in a state of shock.
Mahendra Mishra, a 45-year-old resident of Girish Park, was in the S-1 compartment. “A few minutes after we boarded the train, we could see the celebrations. People had gathered along the tracks. There was commotion. Looking out of the windows, I could even see people taking selfies along the tracks,” he said.
Like most others, Mishra had no inkling of what had happened after the Howrahbound train crossed the site. “When our train crossed the spot, it was travelling at normal speed. It had barely left Amritsar station. The only thing which stood out was that the train was honking without a pause. The train halted a little later,” he said.
Passengers came to know of the tragedy when the train halted at Ludhiana. “It was difficult for us to understand what was happening from inside,” Mishra said.
According to some reports, the driver and guard of the Amritsar-Howrah Mail were detained for questioning in Ludhiana.
‘Anxious relatives back home kept calling us’
Tanmoy Ganguly, a Class XI student of BD Memorial International, returning from Amritsar with his two elderly relatives, was in a state of shock. “When we crossed that spot, I merely glanced to see that many people had gathered near the tracks. I had my earphones on, and didn’t think much about it. Only later I got to know about the disaster and the number of people killed. I still can’t believe it, we were there just minutes earlier,” he said.
As the accident played out on news channels, there were continuous calls from home and relatives. “There were some reports that our train had caused the accident and it was being held up. Relatives were extremely anxious about our wellbeing and kept calling us,” he said.
But the reality of a train tearing through revellers watching Dussehra celebrations was yet to sink in, Tanmoy admitted.
A passenger, who refused to identify himself, said: “Our train halted for a few minutes after crossing the accident site. It was dark outside when the train stopped, it must have been some distance away. Some passengers claimed to have seen the accident and were running inside the compartments in panic. When our train stopped in Ludhiana three hours later, we understood what had happened.”
A senior railway official said, “Most passengers who boarded the train from Amritsar got off at earlier stations. Only a few passengers were booked till Howrah.”
The train driver, Satyabrata Das, said he took over only a few stations before Howrah and was unaware of the accident.