Andhra Train Accident: Mishap Occurred as Driver and Assistant Were Distracted by Cricket Match, says Railway Minister

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has revealed that the train collision in Andhra Pradesh in 2023 occurred because the driver and the assistant driver were engrossed in a cricket match on their phones. "The recent incident in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the locomotive pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the ongoing cricket match," said the railway minister.

The deadly collision in Andhra Pradesh took place in October while India was hosting England during the one-day World Cup. In October 2023, the Rayagada Passenger train collided with the Visakhapatnam Palasa train from behind on the Howrah-Chennai line in Kantakapalli in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. The accident resulted in injuries to more than 50 people, and both crew members were killed instantly.

To prevent such accidents in the future, the railway minister stated that the Centre will be installing systems that can detect any such distractions.

In a separate incident, the Indian Railways has terminated the services of four employees in connection with an incident where an unattended freight train traveled 84 km, nearly two hours, from Jammu to Punjab last month, as reported by the Hindustan Times. The dismissed employees include the station master of Kathua railway station Triveni Lal Gupta, engineers Sandeep Kumar (loco pilot) and Pradeep Kumar (assistant loco pilot), and pointsman Sh. Mohd Sami.

This incident led to further delays of almost eight UP trains and four DOWN trains. On February 25, the train began moving, with no one at the controls, after the engineers forgot to engage the brakes when they stopped at Kathua station, presumably for tea, as reported by the English daily. The train was eventually stopped in Punjab after railway staff placed sandbags and other track obstructions.