Hyderabad: Three dead in a tragic accident near Ramapuram, Chittoor when the driver lost control of the vehicle and collided with an oil tanker. The driver along with the couple were reportedly dead on spot.
The accident took place at 8AM near Ramapuram village in Chittoor district said a Nagari Urban police official.
Nagajyothi and Yuvarajan, a couple hired a private vehicle to travel from Chennai to Tirumala. En route, the driver, who is in his twenties, lost control of the car and collided with an oil tanker.
Passengers travelling in a car behind them survived minor injuries. They informed the police that after the car collided with the oil tanker, the tanker dragged it into a ditch beside the road.
According to the police, the couple are residents of India but have been living in Singapore for sometime now.
Norfolk Southern’s accident rate jumped 80.8 percent between 2013 and 2022, to 3.658 accidents per million miles traveled, from 2.023. Norfolk is one of seven “Class 1″ railroads. Overall, the group had 27 percent more accidents, a rate of 3.067 accidents per million miles traveled, up from a rate of 2.415 in 2013.
The increased accident rate comes as the chemical industry predicts a rise in the amount of chemicals that will be shipped by rail, trucks and other forms of transportation.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday the National Transportation Safety Board announced a special investigation into Norfolk Southern’s “safety culture” after the railroad had its third serious accident in just over a month.
Another Norfolk Southern train derailed Saturday in Springfield, Ohio, and a conductor for the railroad was killed Tuesday by a dump truck as a train was moving through a steel mill in Cleveland, the company said.
The conductor, 46-year-old Louis Shuster, was a father and an Army veteran who had worked at the railroad since 2005, according to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
“The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture,” the safety board said in a news release.
The American Association of Railroads argues that the safety data E&E News reviewed includes minor collisions that happen in train yards and that the number of “main line” incidents like the one in East Palestine has been dropping.
“If you were going to look at the main line accidents … 2022 was the lowest year in history overall,” Mike Rush, the trade group’s senior vice president of operations and safety, said in an interview.
Norfolk Southern, whose CEO is due to testify in a Senate hearing Thursday, declined to comment on the federal safety data but said in a prepared statement that the company is committed to safety.
“We diligently monitor our trains and infrastructure to identify potential hazards, and we invest approximately a billion annually into maintaining our infrastructure every year,” the statement said.
About 19 percent of U.S. chemical output travels by rail, according to AAR. The bulk — 57 percent — moves by truck, and the remainder by ships, barges and pipelines.
Trucks by far have the highest incident rate.
Of all transportation incidents involving hazardous materials in 2022, trucks were responsible for nearly 94 percent, according to Bureau of Transportation statistics. Trains were responsible for a little more than 1 percent.
Truck accidents have been rising, along with other road accidents, for a variety of reasons, including speeding and distracted driving, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“The road safety is nowhere near as good as rail safety,” said Nicholas Little, the director of railway education at Michigan State University. “There’s less chance of a vehicle-to-vehicle accident … and, also, there’s less habitation around the tracks, because it’s not just freeways that the trucks will be going on, they’d be going on local roads, as well.”
But not every chemical is suitable for rail transportation.
How chemicals are transported usually depends on the quantity needed and location of its final destination, Little said. And when rail accidents do happen, the potential for greater environmental damage is larger because trains can carry much bigger quantities of chemicals than trucks, he said.
“Even the biggest highway truck only carries a quarter of the volume that a railcar can carry,” Little said.
The FRA data includes derailments, collisions between trains and other on-rail problems. The numbers cover only the first 11 months of 2022.
Looking strictly at on-rail accidents, three of the freight railroads — Norfolk Southern, CSX Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. — had higher rates over the last 10 years.
Norfolk Southern had one of the lowest accident rates in 2013 and now has the second highest behind Union Pacific, which averaged 4.359 collisions per million miles last year.
The accident rate didn’t appear correlated to the amount of freight on Norfolk Southern’s system. The company’s revenue ton mileage, a metric based on the revenue from one ton of freight shipped over one mile, rose from 2013 to 2018, before falling during the pandemic and bouncing back in the last two years, according to securities filings. Overall, the company had about an 8 percent drop in revenue ton miles over the last decade.
The accident rates at Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern are far lower than they were in the 1970s and ‘80s. But they also show a stark contrast to the other four Class 1 railroads — BNSF, Canadian National, Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific — where accident rates fell between 5 percent and 65 percent over the last decade.
Political oversight
To date, the bulk of the congressional investigations and other political fallout have focused on the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency, not on the rise in accident rates across the industry.
Politicians from both parties have called for stricter safety standards, although it’s unclear if the proposals would have prevented the Ohio wreck.
The 149-car train derailed shortly before 9 p.m. on Feb. 3 just outside East Palestine, a town of about 4,700 that sits near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. An automated system detected an overheated wheel bearing on one of the cars, which triggered an alarm.
The crew was trying to stop the train when a section of it derailed. Thirty-eight cars left the tracks and several of them caught fire.
Some of the cars contained hazardous chemicals, including vinyl chloride and other chemicals. Vinyl chloride, which is used to make common types of plastic, is a carcinogen that creates poisonous gases when it burns, and it also poses an explosion risk.
Three days after the train derailed, local and state officials decided to release the vinyl chloride into a trench and conduct a controlled burn, rather than risk a larger explosion. No one was killed or seriously injured, but the fire sent up a plume of black smoke that left residents complaining about lung irritation and foul odors.
EPA has tested air quality in more than 500 homes, while state officials test the local water system; they have found no hazardous chemical levels. Independent tests by Texas A&M University found high levels of chemicals in the air, which could lead to health problems if the levels persist.
Norfolk Southern announced a series of safety improvements Monday, including assessing how frequently its hot bearing detectors are spaced and testing a new type of hot bearing detector and a new type of acoustic sensor. The company is also developing new technology to search for track defects and is working with the rest of the rail industry on setting standards for when hot bearing detectors should trigger an alarm.
Norfolk Southern and the other six major railroads announced last week that they’re joining a program that allows employees to confidentially report close calls among trains without fear of retaliation.
Safety advocates have used the wreck to call for tighter regulations on rails, calls that have been echoed by several officeholders and by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Since the accident, DOT has announced “targeted track inspections” for routes known to carry hazardous materials and issued a safety advisory for certain aluminum tank car covers, a part that is now known to have melted during the Ohio crash.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have announced hearings into Buttigieg’s handling of the wreck, including when he knew about the derailment. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia asked Buttigieg for information about the adoption of a more modern braking system, known as electronically controlled pneumatic brakes.
The system allows engineers to activate the brakes simultaneously on every car in a train, which could help trains stop more quickly and smoothly. The conventional air brakes on most trains use an air hose that connects the locomotive to the freight cars, so it transmits the braking signal more slowly than an electronic signal.
Republican Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida sent a letter to Buttigieg asking about both the length of the train and the number of crew members on board. Last week, the two senators were part of a bipartisan group that introduced a railroad safety bill.
Long trains, short crews
The Federal Railroad Administration defines a train with 150 or more cars as “very long” — one more than the train that derailed in East Palestine.
A 2019 report by the Government Accountability Office said the number of long trains on the rails was increasing and said crew training “is particularly important for their safe operation.”
The FRA is currently writing rules that would require two-person crews on more freight trains. The industry has resisted the idea, saying that personnel decisions should be made by the companies and arguing that automation can safely reduce the number of crew members.
Automated trains have been operated safely in other countries, including in Australia, where they’re used to transport long trains of iron ore, said Allan Zarembski, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Delaware who specializes in railroads.
All the proposed solutions come with benefits and drawbacks, Zarembski said. Using electronically controlled brakes would improve a train’s stopping power, but it costs more than conventional air brakes. And the system would have to be widely adopted because railroads often haul carloads of hazardous materials mixed with other freights cars.
Electronically controlled braking systems “are at the top of the list” for suggested safety improvements on freight trains, said Little, of Michigan State University. “But when you’re dealing with over 1.6 million rail cars that are in operation, it’s a very, very big task.”
Michael Gorman, a rail consultant and faculty at University of Dayton’s school of business administration, echoed industry concerns, warning of “unintended consequences of poorly thought-out legislation.”
Expensive rail safety improvements would create a higher cost of shipping and could turn businesses away from trains and toward the more accident-prone trucks, Gorman said.
“Right now, we’re in reaction mode, and overreaction is likely to be the results,” Gorman said.
In a 2015 report on rail safety that was written to help the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection cope with an influx of trains carrying crude oil, Zarembski made a series of recommendations.
Some of the steps are mundane, including slower speeds through populated area, while others are high-tech, such as more frequent use of automated track inspections. None of them were new ideas at the time, Zarembski said.
“I haven’t seen anything revolutionary coming down the pike … that’s being ignored by the railroad industry that’s an obvious no-brainer,” he said.
“I think the process is going to continue to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Chennai: Music composer and singer A.R. Rahman’s son, A.R. Ameen escaped a freak accident three days ago which still traumatises him. Ameen in a social media post shared that the accident occurred in the set where music was being played.
In the post, Ameen said that chandeliers, lights and other objects fell from the top while he was performing. He posted that he was unharmed and perfectly all right, but traumatised by the incident.
He thanked God for keeping him safe. Ameen wrote: “I am thankful to the Almighty, my parents, my family, well wishers and my spiritual teacher that I am safe and alive today.
“Just three nights ago, I was shooting for a song and I trusted the team to have taken care of the engineering and safety, while I was focusing on performing before the camera.”
The post further read: “… the whole truss and chandeliers that were suspended from a crane came crashing down while I was still in the middle of the spot. If I were a few inches here and there, a few seconds earlier or later, the whole rig would have fallen on our heads. My team and I are shell shocked and not able to recover from the trauma.”
A.R. Ameen is a playback singer and made his debut in the Tamil movie ‘O Kadhal KNmani’. He has sung in several movies since then.
Hyderabad: Six cars in the convoy of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy were damaged in an accident in Rajanna Sircilla district.
Few media persons travelling in two vehicles belonging to news channels were injured in the incident that occurred at Yellareddypet when Revanth Reddy was on his way for ongoing Haath Se Haath Jodo yatra.
Four SUVs, which were part of Revanth Reddy’s convoy, were damaged along with two media vehicles. The collision took place when the driver of one of the vehicles lost control and hit the vehicle moving in front. The cars following the first vehicle also rammed into each other.
Revanth Reddy and other occupants of SUVs had a narrow escape. The balloons in these vehicles opened due to the impact of the collision saving the passengers from major injuries.
However, few media persons travelling in two cars belonging to news channels were injured.
Revanth Reddy later left in another vehicle.
Meanwhile, the state government has informed the Telangana High Court that Revanth Reddy has been provided security during the ongoing yatra.
The TPCC chief had filed a petition seeking direction to the government to provide security in view of a recent incident in which supporters of ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) attacked the yatra.
Additional DGP, Intelligence, informed the High Court that a fax message had been sent to all unit officers of places where Revanth’s Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra will pass through, instructing them to provide security.
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy adjourned the hearing to Monday. He directed Revanth Reddy to inform the court whether he has been provided with security.
SRINAGAR: A motorcycle rider, presumably in his twenties, was killed in a road mishap in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district this afternoon, officials said.
They said that Nayeem Ahmad Lone, son of Farooq Ahmad Lone, a resident of Badmulla Sheeri was critically injured after losing control over the two-wheeler near Gantmulla.
The youth was evacuated from the site to a nearby health facility, where the doctors however declared him as brought dead on arrival, they said.
Confirming it, a police official said that a case has been registered in this regard for further investigations. (GNS)
New Delhi: A three-and-half-year-old girl was killed after being allegedly hit by a car driven by a senior Indian Air Force officer’s son in southwest Delhi’s Cantonment area, police said on Monday.
The accused is a first year college student in a private college and has been arrested, they said, adding that the accident took place on Sunday.
Police reached the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital after receiving information about the accident of the girl, a resident of Arjun Vihar in Delhi Cantt, a senior police officer said. He added that the girl was declared dead on reaching the health facility.
Prelimiary investigation revealed that the car was travelling at a high speed and hit the girl who came in the middle of the road, an official said.
Police seized the Hyundai Creta and its driver Samark Malik (20), a resident of Arjan Vihar in Delhi Cantt, has been arrested, officials said.
Samark is the son of an IAF group captain, police said.
Based on the complaint of the girl’s mother, a case under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Delhi Cantt police station, the officer said.
It was found that Malik first took the injured girl and her family to the Delhi Cantt Hospital from where he took them to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital and later to the RML hospital where the victim girl was declared dead, police said.
The mother of the victim works as a maid in Arjan Vihar area and her father does private jobs, they said.
A German coach fell over an embankment near Schladming in Austria. A vacationer was fatally injured. There are serious injuries. The bus comes from Passau (Bavaria).
Updated February 27, 8:30 a.m: The tobogganing trip near Schladming was supposed to be a carefree day with friends before the wedding. The bachelor party ended in a nightmare. On the way back, the coach crashed in Austria. The groom (31) dies in the serious accident. Seven people are seriously injured. The condition of the 51-year-old bus driver is critical.
The bachelor group consisting of 32 men were on their way home on Saturday evening when the bus fell over the embankment in the last bend before Schladming and overturned several times. First aiders were quickly on site, but for the 31-year-old any help came too late.
The groom came from the market town of Triftern (Rottal-Inn district). “It’s a tragic incident,” said Mayor Edith Lirsch, according to the dpa news agency. Everyone knows each other in the small town. Many of the young people are active in clubs. “That’s why you take a big interest.”
The commander of the Lengsham fire brigade speaks of a tragedy and a great loss. As the Central Bavarian newspaper reported, the 31-year-old had been active as a youth worker in the fire brigade for ten years and was very involved in his team. “It is still unbelievable for all of us and a huge shock.”
Coach crashes over the embankment: the deadly injurer is said to have been the groom (31).
Updated February 26, 3:27 p.m: A toboggan trip by a tour group from Lower Bavaria (Passau) ended in a serious accident. On the return journey from Austria, the coach with 32 passengers on board came off the road in a bend near Schladming and fell several meters over an embankment. The trip is said to have been a bachelor party.
Particularly tragic: A 31-year-old died – it is said to have been the groom among the group. This is reported by the Austrian media, such as the Small newspaper. The bus driver (51) and other passengers were taken to hospitals with serious injuries. 26 passengers were slightly injured, reports the Schladming volunteer fire brigade on Facebook. After the bus accident, first responders were by chance immediately on the spot.
“Immediately behind the accident vehicle drove a bus occupied by fire brigade comrades, who immediately secured the accident site and acted as first aiders,” the mission report reads.
First of all, the cause of the accident is still unclear. According to local media, the police speculate about a brake failure. During the night it had only snowed a little there. In 2017, however, a similar accident occurred at the site. A truck that was no longer able to brake crashed over the embankment onto the flat roof of the garage. The truck driver was seriously injured in the accident.
Accident in Austria: coach from Bavaria falls over an embankment – one dead
February 26 update at 9:54 am: According to the latest findings, the German coach came from the Passau area (Bavaria) and was returning from a toboggan trip. The bus crashed in Austria late on Saturday evening. On the country road near Schladming, the bus with 32 passengers left the road and fell down an embankment. The coach is said to have overturned several times before landing on the flat roof of a company site.
German coach from Passau (Bavaria) crashed in Austria – 31-year-old dies at the scene of the accident
Three occupants were trapped and had to be freed by the fire department. For a 31-year-old, any help came too late. The man died from his serious injuries at the scene of the accident. Another passenger and the bus driver (51) were seriously injured after being taken to hospital. The cause of the fatal bus accident is initially unclear. “The coach was secured on the instructions of the Leoben public prosecutor’s office and will be examined by experts,” the police reported.
Austria: German coach falls over an embankment – a passenger dies at the scene of the accident.
Accident in Austria: German coach falls over embankment – one dead
First report from February 26, 2023
Schladming – In Styria (Austria) on a country road near Schladming, a serious bus accident occurred on Saturday night (February 25) with one dead and two seriously injured. The German coach with 32 occupants got off the road around 11:15 p.m. for an unknown reason and fell down the embankment. He then came to rest on the flat roof of a company building, the Austrian police said on Sunday.
Austria: German coach falls down an embankment – passenger (31) dies at the scene of the accident
A German citizen was fatally injured in the accident. Another passenger and the bus driver (51) – both also German citizens – were taken to the hospitals in Schladming and Schwarzach with serious injuries.
Of the 32 occupants, three people were trapped and had to be freed by the fire brigade, reports the ORF. For a 31-year-old German, however, any help came too late. The man died at the scene of the accident. Most of the other bus passengers suffered minor injuries or were unharmed in the crash, police said. The group on the bus was on the return journey after a toboggan trip, said a police spokesman in Styria, reports the dpa news agency. According to initial findings, only men were on board the bus.
Austria: German coach crashes in bend over embankment. Rescue workers from the fire brigade are on duty at the scene of the accident.
According to the police, the bus accident happened on the L722 country road in the direction of Schladming in the so-called “Schlösselkehre”. The coach was secured by the fire brigade with supports to prevent another crash, reports the ORF. Finally, the vehicle was recovered with a truck-mounted crane. 160 forces from the police, fire brigade and rescue services as well as a crisis intervention team were deployed at the scene of the accident. Investigations into the exact cause of the accident are still ongoing. The bus driver had not yet been questioned due to his serious injuries. (ml)
SRINAGAR: A five-year-old girl was killed after she was hit by an unknown vehicle at Damhal Hanjipora area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Friday, officials said.
Quoting an official the news agency KNO reported that an unknown vehicle hit a five year old girl identified as Zahira Jan, daughter of Mohammad Younis Shah at her native village in DK Marg, D H Pora.
She was critically wounded and was immediately shifted to nearby hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.
Meanwhile, police have taken the cognizance of the incident and a hunt has been launched to nab the driver involved.
Kulgam, Feb 24: A five-year-old girl was killed after she was hit by an unknown vehicle at Damhal Hanjipora area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Friday, officials said.
An official told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that an unknown vehicle hit a five year old girl identified as Zahira Jan, daughter of Mohammad Younis Shah at her native village in DK Marg, D H Pora.
She was critically wounded and was immediately shifted to nearby hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.
Meanwhile, police have taken the cognizance of the incident and a hunt has been launched to nab the driver involved—(KNO)
SRINAGAR: At least 7 persons were injured after an auto collided with a car in Siot area of Rajouri on Thursday evening, officials said here.
Quoting an official the news agency KNO reported that the accident took place this evening. “In the incident at least 7 persons were injured and they have been shifted to a hospital,” he said.
The injured have been identified as Amar Latif (35), Laliya (25), Rahila (26)—all residents of Mendhar, Deepak Sharma (35)of Dharamsal, Siddhant Sharma (24), Paviter Bala (28), Anita Devi (29), Rekha Devi (35), Priya Sharma (24) and Jatinder Sharma (31)—all residents of Siot.
He said police have taken cognisance of the incident.
