Coach S-4 had more than double its normal capacity

MAJH FAGGOWAL, Ludhiana: "Accidents don''t happen; they are caused." An old maxim, related to safety, rings so true. Clearly, Thursday morning''s accident reflects a neglect of norms and callousness.
Passengers on board the Frontier Mail bound for Amritsar told Times News Network that there were nearly 140 passengers in the S-4 coach, which caught fire in the early morning hours here.
This is double its size. Thirty-three persons were killed in the S-4 coach compared to three killed in the S-3 coach and none in S-5.
Army havaldar Bhagwan Singh, who pulled the chain and helped dozens out of the burning coaches also happened to be one such passenger who was on board without a reservation. He explained that he along with his six Army colleagues had boarded the train from Ambala, and were bound for Amritsar.
All the three coaches were second-class reserved sleepers.
The death roll in train accidents is often high because unreserved second-class carriages are overcrowded with passengers hanging out of the doors. Carriage S-4 had two open and two bolted doors when the fire broke out. Everyone rushed towards the doors, and Bitty Shahji, along with her two young boys shouted for help standing amidst the door with a lot of luggage.
She screamed for help, especially for her children, said AIG, Railways, S S Bawa, who witnessed the scene. He explained that she did not move even though she was charred, blocking the way for a lot of people behind her who had got stuck.
While it took the passengers a long time opening the two bolted doors of the S-4 coach, the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) of all the three coaches were conveniently missing. The passengers and railway employees looked for them in vain till late in the morning. Interestingly, broken parts of a hookah and a stove top were visible in one of the coaches.