31-05-2013, 03:51 PM
Rail Accidents due to Human Errors – Indian Railways Experience
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INTRODUCTION
Safe transportation of passengers is the key business objective of any transportation system. Railways are recognized as the safest mode of mass transportation and Safety has been recognized as the key issue for the railways and one of its special attributes. All business strategies emanate from this theme and strive to achieve Accident Free System. Safety is, therefore, the key performance index which the top managements need to monitor and take preventive steps based on trends of accidents which are the manifestations of some of the unsafe practices on the system.
Indian Railways operate on gigantic dimensions covering over 63,000 route kilometers with daily loading of 1.6 million tonnes of freight and daily transporting of 14 million passengers by logging more than 2 million train kilometers per day. Safety is of paramount importance to Indian railways. Highest priority is accorded to safety and the rail mode in India continues to be the safest means of transportation for public. No compromise is tolerated in Safety of Rail users and all levels of management keep reviewing the Safety performance from time to time. This paper discusses the safety performance of Indian Railways in brief, role of human element in railway accidents and various initiatives taken by the Indian Railways to help bring down accidents due to human error.
SAFETY & RELIABILITY RELATIONSHIP
Safety and Reliability of assets are closely linked with each other. Deterioration in the safety performance is preceded by the increase in the number of failures. Overlooking these warning signals can be disastrous as each of these is an accident waiting to happen.
Human Element in Train Accidents
In the last 10 years (1994-2004) on Indian Railways, 62% of the accidents have been caused due to failure of Railway staff, 22% have been caused due to failure of other than Railway staff, failure of equipment has contributed 8%, sabotage has contributed 3% and balance 5 % have been contributed by miscellaneous reasons. From the break-up, it is more than evident that human error from Railway Staff has been the major factor in causing the accidents on Indian Railways.
Higher incidence of human failures surface as technical safeguards and backups do not always replace the human effort. Though an accident occurs only when both fail but it usually gets logged as ‘human error’ with a tendency of glossing over technical failure. Under optimum field conditions and with the best of intentions, a human being is likely to commit a mistake from time to time.
Others
• Periodical Safety drives to correct the system failure in which the all equipments that are to be attended would undergo a cycle inspection.
• Safety audits to identify system failures and generic shortcomings for making the in-depth assessment of safety systems.
• Human Resource Development (HRD) cell involving dynamic and knowledgeable supervisors to study working habits of ground level staff, factors leading to short cuts and to reduce fatigue, minimize monotony and improve safety consciousness.
• Review of working hours for identified critical categories of staff.
• More of Simulator training for drivers.
• Crew Management and setting up systems to ensure expeditious correction of enroute deficiencies noted by crew.
• Mobile breathalyzers for testing of running staff with an element of surprise.
• The ergonomic design of loco cab to provide fatigue free driving for long hours.
• Upgradation of running rooms with certain basic amenities.
• Upgradation of crew lobbies with basic amenities.
• Guard friendly Brake Vans.
Conclusion
Most of the accidents due to human error are preceded by failure of asset. Performance of frontline operating staff becomes key to the safe operation during such abnormal working conditions. No human error leading to an accident is caused for the sake of it but is prompted by several other factors which need to be examined and investigated in greatest details to reach the root of the cause. Majority of accidents on Indian Railways are reported to have been caused due to failure of railway staff. With detailed investigation of accidents and innovative initiatives being taken by Indian railways, accidents due to human error are gradually declining over the years. Indian railways have also made conscious efforts to improve the reliability of assets to cut down the vulnerability of human element.