Date 3 February 2005 | Total number of deaths 55 | |
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Location Kanan, Osaka Prefecture, Japan Similar Ghotki rail crash, 2005 Glendale train crash, Graniteville - South Carolina, 1999 Bourbonnais - Illinois - tr, Ufton Nervet rail crash | ||
The Nagpur level crossing disaster was an accident that occurred on 3 February 2005, when a crowded trailer being towed by a tractor was hit by a train near the village of Kanan, 20 km from Nagpur in Maharashtra, India. At least 55 people died, including 10 children.
Contents
Overview
The accident happened on an isolated, unmanned level crossing, when a wedding party of 70 people was being transported to the ceremony on a trailer being towed by a tractor. The crossing had no attendant or barriers. The locomotive struck the trailer and stopped just after the crossing, the crumpled trailer still underneath it, and passengers provided what assistance they could until emergency services arrived. 55 people died in the crash or in the days following, and the surviving members of the party were all critically injured. The dead included at least 30 women and 10 children. No train passengers suffered more than minor injuries or shock.
Aftermath
The tragedy was one of a series of multiple-casualty accidents on India's overcrowded and under-maintained railway system, and resulted in demands that Transport Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav resign. The director of the South East Central Railway commented, "We had not installed a gate at the rail crossing because very few trains pass this way. But after this tragedy we will consider posting a guard."