Current:Home > MyRunaway train speeds 43 miles down tracks in India without a driver-LoTradeCoin
Runaway train speeds 43 miles down tracks in India without a driver
View Date:2024-12-24 08:13:35
New Delhi — Social media channels lit up Monday as gobsmacked Indians shared a video showing a driverless train zooming past several stations at high speed. It was no cutting-edge robotic public transport innovation, however — but a fully loaded freight train that was apparently left unattended, on a slope, by an engineer who forgot to pull the emergency brake.
Indian Railways, the national rail operator, ordered an investigation Monday into what could have been a major disaster in a country where train tracks often bisect busy neighborhoods and collisions are common.
"We have ordered an inquiry," Deepak Kumar, a Northern Railways spokesperson, told the French news agency AFP, adding that no one had been hurt in the incident.
The 53-carriage freight train loaded with gravel was on its way from Jammu in northern India to Punjab on Sunday morning when it stopped in Kathua for a crew change. Indian media reports say the driver and his assistant got off without applying the skid brakes.
It soon started rolling down the tracks, which are on a gradient, before eventually barreling down the line at 53 miles per hour, racing through several stations and covering 43 miles in total before it was brought to a halt.
Videos shared on social media showed the train zooming through stations at high speed.
Officials had closed off railway crossings on the train's path to avoid accidents.
Wooden blocks were then placed on the tracks to reduce the speed of the train and, eventually, they brought it to a stop.
This is the second such incident in India. In 2018, about 1,000 passengers had a narrow escape when their train, running from the western state of Gujarat to Odisha in the east, rolled about 7 miles without a driver. The cause of that incident was the same: The driver had forgotten to apply skid brakes at a station when the engine was being changed.
In June 2023, nearly 300 people were killed in a train collision in eastern India caused by a signal system error. In 2016, 152 people were killed when a passenger train derailed in the central state of Uttar Pradesh.
The country's worst train disaster, which killed more than 800 people in 1981, was when a passenger train derailed and tumbled into a river in the eastern state of Bihar during a cyclone.
India has one of the largest railway networks in the world, and an estimated 13 million people travel on trains every day. But significant investment in recent years aimed at modernizing the network, a significant proportion of the country's rail infrastructure is still outdated.
- In:
- India
- High-Speed Rail
- Train Crash
- Train
veryGood! (667)
Related
- Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday light display in Manhattan changing up this season
- Penelope Disick Gets Sweet 11th Birthday Tributes From Kourtney Kardashian, Scott Disick & Travis Barker
- Climate Activists Reluctantly Back John Fetterman in Tightening Pennsylvania Senate Race
- Why building public transit in the US costs so much
- Are Ciara Ready and Russell Wilson Ready For Another Baby? She Says…
- Republican attacks on ESG aren't stopping companies in red states from going green
- The missing submersible raises troubling questions for the adventure tourism industry
- Boy, 5, dies after being run over by father in Indiana parking lot, police say
- What Happened to Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Character? John Dutton’s Fate Revealed
- Reneé Rapp Leaving The Sex Lives Of College Girls Amid Season 3
Ranking
- 2 weeks after Peanut the Squirrel's euthanasia, owner is seeking answers, justice
- Boy, 5, dies after being run over by father in Indiana parking lot, police say
- How Jill Duggar Is Parenting Her Own Way Apart From Her Famous Family
- The missing submersible raises troubling questions for the adventure tourism industry
- California voters reject measure that would have banned forced prison labor
- Maria Menounos Proudly Shares Photo of Pancreatic Cancer Surgery Scars
- Amid Rising Emissions, Could Congressional Republicans Help the US Reach Its Climate Targets?
- Cities Are a Big Part of the Climate Problem. They Can Also Be a Big Part of the Solution
Recommendation
-
FBI offers up to $25,000 reward for information about suspect behind Northwest ballot box fires
-
Here's How Margot Robbie Really Achieves Her Barbie Blonde Hair
-
Post-Tucker Carlson, Fox News hopes Jesse Watters will bring back viewers
-
Why Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Are One of Hollywood's Best Love Stories
-
Why Officials Believe a Missing Kayaker Faked His Own Death and Ran Off to Europe
-
When big tech laid off these H-1B workers, a countdown began
-
r/boxes, r/Reddit, r/AIregs
-
Former U.S. Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar Stabbed Multiple Times in Prison
Like
- Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn’s SKIMS Holiday Pajamas Are Selling Out Fast—Here’s What’s Still Available
- With Fossil Fuel Companies Facing Pressure to Reduce Carbon Emissions, Private Equity Is Buying Up Their Aging Oil, Gas and Coal Assets
- How Emily Blunt and John Krasinski Built a Marriage That Leaves Us All Feeling Just a Little Jealous