Railways to get live video feed from train accident sites

The Ministry of Railways has included video communication from scene of accidents in the Disaster Management protocol.

In the event of an accident or any other disaster, the railway telecom officials will establish a link for live video feed from the site as early as possible. This would not only help in assessing the intensity of the incident and expedite relief/rescue operations but preserve evidence that may be required for further investigation, railway sources said on May 7.

In a communication issued to General Managers of all Zonal Managers, the Railway Board has said that in case of an accident the Telecom In-Charge, usually the Senior Divisional Signal & Telecommunications Engineer, of concerned division shall make video conferencing arrangement at accident site by using suitable gadgets, as per latest instructions, as a first line of response.

The video conferencing link so generated would have to be shared with the Railway Board and Zonal Head Quarters for showing the live feed of the accident site, the communication said.

Drone services

Senior officers were advised to launch drone services depending on the local site conditions. Detailed guidelines were already issued for hiring drones from authorized service providers. The communication also gave details of Railway Board officials at the ‘War Room’ who could be contacted at times of disasters.

The move to include live video feed from scene of accidents comes after the Commissioner of Railway Safety’s final report on the rear-end collision of two passenger trains near Vizianagaram in Waltair Division of East Coast Railway which left 17 people, including three railwaymen, dead and 34 others injured on October 29, 2023.

The CRS Pranjeev Saxena said in his report that “in future, there is need to preserve the evidence which seems to have been destroyed by movement of Cranes/Porcelains etc on the same track on which incident occurred. In addition to other things, proper videography of the entire track on foot should be done starting from at least 100 meters before the affected portions,” he said.

Going by official data, in the last five years (2018-19 to 2022-23), a total number of 219 consequential train accidents occurred in Indian Railways. The accidents occurred mainly due to asset failure, environmental factors and human errors.