The 2001 Kandy ICE disaster a look back
This article was first published in The Island newspaper in 2001.
The buck passes as investigation continue into rail disaster
The Kandy-Colombo Intercity Express — train number 30 — left the hill capital last Sunday at precisely 6.30 in the morning. When it reached Peradeniya Junction, it was 6.41 am.
At the scenic Balana station, about half-an-hour later, it tarried three minutes to cross tracks with an upcoming train..
Till that point, according to the preliminary report of railway department investigators, nothing was amiss with the train or its journey except a seven-minute delay for this or that reason. Between the Ihalakotte and Makehelwala stations, however, engine driver Leslie Ranjith gauged from the speed of the train that its vacuum brake system may not be functioning as it should. Using horn signals in the customary manner, Ranjith advised the guard at the other end of the train to operate the handbrake. The maneuver failed. The guard did as told but those brakes, too, did not work.
The train started picking up speed, going down what is known to be the steepest gradient in Sri Lanka at a rate that was too fast for comfort. It approached Kadigamuwa station, where the station master was waiting to accept the tablet from the train and to hand over his own. But so fast was the train travelling that the officer had to hastily fling his tablet to the engine driver’s assistant. There was no time for a regular exchange.
As the train passed the station, the engine driver and his assistant indicated with hand gestures that the brakes were not working.
The train continued to hurtle down the track. Inside, passengers who had been anticipating a regular ride to Colombo were exceedingly alarmed as parts of the train rattled and swung. Seats came unhinged and commuters, with nothing to hang on to, were tossed about mercilessly. Ranjith later testified that it may have been advancing at 60 miles per hour but could not confirm this as the speedometer in the train had been broken.
At Kirillapitiya, seconds after it passed a caution board warning engine drivers to maintain a speed of 15 miles per hour, the train derailed and crashed into the paddy field on the left of the track. All seven coaches and engine derailed, said the preliminary report. The engine was the only hunk of metal left standing. Six coaches pounded directly into the paddy field. Although the initial death toll was 15, others died in hospital while many more were grievously wounded. Among the dead were two children, one just four years old. His injured body remained in the morgue for a day before it was identified. Many other bodies were twisted beyond recognition.
Preliminary report blames driver
The question is, who takes the blame? And how productive is the manner in which present investigations are being conducted?
The initial probe, according to railway department sources, pointed the accusing finger squarely at the engine driver. Those backing the report say that measures could have been taken to avert disaster if the driver had communicated with the main railway control division. “There is a BBC communication system on the train,” said one official. “The first fault that the driver committed was that he didn’t call railway control.” He could also have inserted a note into the tablet and handed it over at one station, thus enabling the station master to alert railway control.
Railway control could have stopped the train using what is called “catch-point” in shop talk, the official explained. “This means, the train could be derailed purposely by the station master,” he elaborated. “He manipulates the tracks and directs it towards another route where a controlled derailment takes place.” For such a stratagem to be adopted, however, approval must come from the highest authority.
Catch-points are situated only at certain stations. There was one at Kadigamuwa.
The second error, according to these officials, is that the engine driver did not apply the dynamic brakes early enough. The dynamic brake is one of the systems in the train that can be operated from the engine although it only slows the train and does not completely bring it to a halt. “He applied these brakes when the train was travelling very fast,” a railway officer noted. “They don’t work at that stage. They may have worked during the early stages.”
The initial report also notes that although the driver had 17 years experience, he had been plying the upcountry route only for two years. It recommends training for drivers to prevent further accidents. Nobody else was found guilty.
Engine drivers disagree
This, naturally, spurred fiery protest from the engine drivers. “We don’t think there is any fault on the part of the engine driver,” said P. B. Wettasinghe, president of the Locomotive Engineers Union (LEU). “The vacuum brakes failed, the dynamic brakes failed, the engine had been very poorly maintained without necessary replacement of spare parts and even the speedometer didn’t work.”
Wettasinghe said that there have been earlier instances where dynamic and vacuum brakes failed. In fact, on January 11, last year, the same Kandy-Colombo intercity train ran out of control past Balana but came to a stop at Rambukkana. Late last year, too, the brakes failed on the Intercity and passengers were advised to “hold on tight”. The train was brought safely to a halt and proceeded to its destination after the brakes were repaired.
Derailments, in the meantime, happen as often as every month. In fact, the Colombo-Vavuniya train also derailed last Sunday, shortly after the Intercity went off the rails. It didn’t get much play because nobody died. But people did die in August last year when the Udarata Menike went off the tracks near Alawwa: 15 dead and 40 wounded. That accident is all but forgotten now. The driver was held liable.
It has become a habit, noted Wettasinghe, for the authorities to blame the driver for every accident. “That’s the easiest thing,” he noted. “Then, they can dismiss problems in the track, the deplorable state of engines and as well as all other weaknesses. In every accident so far, has anyone else been blamed? No?” If the inquiry was conducted in the proper manner, he said, at least twenty to thirty top officials will also be on the dock.
“If this engine driver is held guilty and removed from his post, will there be no more rail accidents in future?” he asked.
What have committees achieved?
The man has a point. Although there are railway authorities who do not completely agree with the LEU stand that the driver is blameless, they do accept that the accident must be taken in context of weaknesses in the entire railway network. Isolating this incident, appointing high-flown committees to probe it and expending resources to produce a report that will only disappear under piles of other documents is a total waste of time. For instance, the report on the Udarata Menike accident is still to be handed to higher authorities. General Manager (Railways) Priyal de Silva said that he had to make some corrections in it.
“One can appoint specialised committees to study this disaster if the rail system in our country was as accident-proof and as safe as in developed countries,” said an engineer who did not wish to be named. “But having such probes when the entire system is in a mess is futile. Why do we need to study it? We know what the problems are.”
Every time something goes wrong, a committee is appointed but that is not the way things should be done, he said. “What happened to earlier inquiries? Tell me one committee which has had the practical result of ridding the railways of inherent shortcomings and thus preventing further accidents? What action has been taken?” he asked, with very much the frustrated note that Wettasinghe had in his voice. “I don’t know of any follow-up.”
Blame must be shared
In his opinion, blame cannot be assigned to one single party. The track must be upgraded, drivers have to be trained and engines urgently serviced. He revealed that in recent times funds have been so short that some trains simply did not go through the repairs that needed to be done every two years. Engines which were last serviced in 1999 are running without repair.
“If you take a carriage, you can identify a hundred faults,” the engineer said. “And even a laymen can point out a bad track. Okkoma kabal vela.” Wettasinghe observed that if engine drivers rejected faulty engines, a significant portion of the journeys currently being undertaken would have to be put on hold. A driver did, in fact, refuse to operate a train the very next day. The upcountry Podi Menike was delayed by six hours because the driver found the brakes faulty and put his foot down.
“Instead of spending money on maintaining engines, coaches and tracks, they are appointing committees and talking of bringing down foreign experts,” the engineer scoffed. There are two committees sitting on this particular accident — a five-member railway committee and another three-member government board.
Elaborating on the lack of funds, another railway official (also speaking on condition of anonymity) complained that the government did not permit them to increase ticket fares. Neither did they make available the necessary funds to preserve existing standards. The railways were on a downward trend, with income only an estimated one-third of the expenditure. “We need to treble ticket fares just to break even,” he said.
So many shortcomings
Shortcomings in the railway system are numerous. Dr. Saman Bandara, senior lecturer in the transportation engineering division of the Moratuwa University, elaborated on some of the less highlighted problems. He pointed out that the rail network had been laid years ago. Speeds are different now and so is capacity and load. But tracks are not up to standard. “There is an incompatibility between the vehicle and the track,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, schedules have also not reflected recent realities. “Scheduling was done at a time when the pressure on the rail network was less,” Dr. Bandara said. “The time taken to travel distances by train is less now because more people board and descend and there are more stops. But engine drivers are forced to keep to old schedules. The only way they can do so, is to increase speed between stops,” he explained.
“Delays are so frequent now because the schedules are not realistic,” he added. “It is beyond the diver’s control. They have to accelerate or people will scold them for not keeping to schedule.”
No explanation for the brake failure
Like others, however, Bandara was not able to gather why the brakes had failed. In addition to the fact that he hadn’t particularly studied the Intercity accident, he said that brake failures may not be detected in advance. Both engineers and drivers echoed this opinion. Meanwhile, the questionable engine was found to be in working condition when tested the next day.
General Manager explains
Priyal de Silva said that he couldn’t give a final statement on the accident till the “committee reports were out.” He claimed that derailments had reduced from 1995 to 2001 although the results were worse now. It was an opposing stand to those taken by others who said that derailments have never been this frequent or grave.
“It appears that speed was a factor in this accident,” he said. “Telltale marks on the track are proof of this.”
De Silva admitted that a combination of factors had resulted in deterioration of the railways: lack of funds, bad attitudes and discipline, quality of sleepers, etc., absence of spares. Meanwhile, the pressure on the railways has increased tremendously. In 1960, only 50,000 people were transported by 45 power sets. Today, 36 power sets transport 175,000 people.
Asked whether the committees would find just find one party guilty while excusing others, he said that it was up to those in the boards to cross-examine everyone concerned and to produce an accurate report.
Everyone knows what’s wrong
The greatest tragedy today is that while railways are scrutinised every time an accident happens, memories fade in a week and there is silence till the next calamity. Then, committees are appointed, largely to appease the public and to give the impression that something is being done. Some committees are low-level while others are high. It depends on how bad the incident is — on how many innocents died. But nothing happens.
There are enough experts in the country to give opinion on what went wrong. There is simply no one who follows their advice. The present committees, like their predecessors, will produce a report but little else.
A train should not be a ride to death. Could we keep it that way?
by Namini Wijedasa
Source: The Island
