A.P. crash: Railways had no voice recording facility at train stations

A piece of crucial evidence to ascertain the reasons that led to the devastating collision between two passenger trains, which left 17 people dead near Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh last year, has been lost since a safety advisory to install voice recording facility at railway stations was ignored, o¯cial sources said on Tuesday.

The accident pertains to the rear-end collision of Visakhapatnam-Rayagada Passenger with Visakhapatnam-Palasa Passenger between Kantakapalle and Alamanda railway stations in Waltair Division of East Coast Railway on October 29, 2023.

In the statutory investigation, Commissioner of Railway Safety Pranjeev Saxena has said that the loco pilot of the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada train was reluctant to cross the signal in danger. The Station

Commissioner of Railway Safety said the loco pilot of one train was reluctant to cross the signal

Superintendent of Kantakapalle railway station issued a Private Number (a secret code) authorising him to cross the signal in red. “The role of the Train Manager [Guard] is suspect as he is the only surviving crew member who could have acted in time to prevent the mishap... TMR has su¯cient reasons not to disclose full facts as they may implicate him and the Station Superintendent of Kantakapalle,” he said.

While the TMR train journal was reported “lost” and Superintendent had overwritten in the Private Number book, the “absence of audio recording of conversation on walkie-talkie makes this inconclusive”, he said in the report given to the Railway Board.