It held Rangapani station
staff, chief loco inspector and loco inspector of New Jalpaiguri, and traffic
inspector dealing with rules at Northeast frontier zonal headquarters primarily
responsible for the accident that claimed 10 lives and left 43 injured.
The report said factors that led to the crash were a faulty authority
letter that created an impression in the mind of the loco pilot to drive the
freight train at the allowed speed on the section when automatic signals were
not functioning; not issuing caution orders; & poor counselling of train
running and station staff. “This was an avoidable accident,” it said.
On June 17, the goods train rear-ended Kanchanjunga Express near
Jalpaiguri. Soon after, top officials blamed the goods train’s loco pilot &
assistant loco pilot for not following norms, but the CRS probe found no fault
on their part. The report has concluded that the accident happened due to
“lapses at multiple levels in managing train operations under automatic signal
failures”. It said Rangpani station staff issued the wrong “paper authority” to
cross the section and failed to give the “caution order” to drive at the
stipulated speed.
Walkie-talkies, a critical
safety equipment, were not provided to the loco pilot and train manager (guard)
of the goods train. Moreover, the station master failed to take the signature
of the train manager on paper authority, it said. The report said inadequate counselling of loco pilots and station
masters on train operations in automatic signalling territory created
misinterpretation of rules, leading to the accident.