Country Pakistan Type of incident collision Trains 3 Location Ghotki, Pakistan Operator Pakistan Railways Location Ghotki | Rail line Karachi to Rawalpindi Cause Incorrectly set points Date 13 July 2005 Total number of deaths 109 Injuries 100 | |
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The Ghotki rail crash occurred on 13 July 2005, at around 3:40am local time (2240 July 12 UTC) in Ghotki, Pakistan. No. 24 Dn train (Quetta Express) stopping at the station of Sarhad (a town near Ghotki) due to a fault on the brakes was hit from behind by the following Karachi Express (No. 16 Dn) train which had been given a clear line. Initially it was assumed that the driver of Karachi Express missed a signal, but subsequent investigations found that the signalling system was faulty. An emergency brake application could not prevent the collision, a situation aggravated by insufficient braking power, because two coaches had to be isolated from the train braking system. The collision caused several of the cars to derail. The derailed cars were subsequently hit by a third train (Tezgam), which resulted in a total of seventeen wrecked train cars, which carried over 3000 passengers. The entire staff of Sarhad railway station fled when the accident occurred.
The train that rammed into the stopped train at the Ghotki station originated in Lahore and was headed for the city of Karachi. The third train involved in the accident was heading from Karachi to Rawalpindi near the country's capital city of Islamabad.
Although the exact death toll was not originally known, officials estimated that over 500 people may have died as a result of the accident. Final results put the death toll at a substantially-lower 109 victims.