Jan. 8: A local train crash that killed a person last night has brought to light a gaping hole in the safety mechanism in several single-line stations that can exact a heavy price when fog descends. The standard track isolation system, meant to prevent two trains from entering the same track, was not put in place at one end of the line at Nadia's Phulia station, officials said today. A train ran on the wrong track there and rammed into a stationary one last night, leading to the death of a gateman and injuring 30 people. The track isolation point was not lodged on the Shantipur side of Phulia station, a senior railway official said. "A track isolation system ensures that two trains don't enter the same line even if one of them overshoots a signal. The train that is headed for the wrong track will either be diverted to the original line or it will get derailed," he added. The Sealdah-bound local from Shantipur was supposed to take the main line and enter platform No. 1. Instead, it apparently jumped a signal and entered the loop line, where the Shantipur-bound local was standing, and crashed into it on platform No. 2. To implement the system, the minimum distance between the signal outside the station and the track isolation point should be 72 metres, an official said. "At Phulia, the distance is considerably less than the ideal," the official said. He, however, could not say how much the distance was in Phulia. The official said the safety mechanism could not be implemented at the Shantipur end because of the "proximity of a level-crossing". Sources said that in several other single-line stations, the technology could not be implemented because of "infrastructure problems". "On a foggy winter evening such as yesterday, a driver can miss a signal and enter the wrong track without any warning to station authorities," a source said. The railway officials said the standard isolation system could have prevented the collision even in case of a fault in the signalling system or a human error. The commissioner of railway safety (eastern circle), R.P. Yadav, has started an inquiry. The driver of the Sealdah-bound train that rammed into the stationary train, R.S. Yadav, has been admitted to Kanchrapara railway hospital. "He is in a state of shock. We will record his statement once he recovers," said G.C. Agarwal, the general manager of Eastern Railway. Agarwal visited the accident site today along with Vinay Mittal, the railway board chairman. Manoranjan Ghosh, the driver of the Shantipur-bound train who could not be traced after the accident, reported to his seniors today. Agarwal said 27 people, including three railway employees, had been hospitalised. While porter Niranjan Ghosh was beaten up by passengers after the accident, deputy station manager Pradip Dey suffered injuries after he jumped off a first-floor window of the signal cabin to escape mob fury. Mittal said Purnendu Mondal, the gateman who was run over yesterday, had tried to stop the Sealdah-bound train from entering the wrong track. "He made a brave attempt to stop the train," Mittal said. Normal train services resumed on the Ranaghat-Shantipur stretch from 11am today. | 
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