Eyewitnesses of the Amritsar train tragedy have accused the driver of lying. On Saturday, a day later after a speeding train ran over dozens of people, killing at least 61, the loco pilot of the Jalandhar-Amritsar express pleaded innocent.

The driver had claimed that he had applied ‘emergency brakes’ once he saw around 700 people standing on the tracks but still many people had come in the path of the train. Once the train had slowed down, the crowd started hurling stones on the boogie. The driver further said keeping the safety of passengers in mind, he continued to ride towards Amritsar.

Photo: AFP

However, people who were present during the gruesome incident rubbished the driver’s statements. A Municipal Councillor, Shailender Singh Shally told PTI, calling the driver’s claim a white lie said that leave alone stopping, he didn’t even slow down the train.

“It seemed as if the driver wanted to mow us down. The train passed us in a matter of seconds,” he was quoted as saying.

Shally further reasoned that is it possible for people to pelt stones at him while scores of lifeless people were lying around. While the driver said that he was constantly blowing the horn of the train to get people off the tracks.

Photo: AFP/ Indian Rapid Action Force on sight

Another eyewitness, Paramjeet Singh was quoted as saying, “The train was in such speed that the accident happened in seconds. There are hundreds of videos that show how fast the train went. There was no chance of us reacting, leave alone pelt stones. All we could hear around us was people screaming and crying,” the HT reported.

According to local media reports, the train came under the Diesel Electrical Multiple Unit (DEMU) which has a maximum speed of 96 kmph. If brakes are applied on an empty train then it comes to a halt in about 300 metres and if it is full of passengers then it comes to a halt within 600 metres.

Photo: BCCL/ Candle light march in Chandigarh in lieu of Amritsar accident

Vivek Kumar who is the Divisional Railway Manager (Ferozpur) told HT that the last recorded speed of the train was 68 kmph.

Another eyewitness, Ajay Goenka said people could be heard only screaming and shouting and there is no way people could have hurled stones at the train because even if they would have found the time to gather stones, the train would have been out of sight.

The local police were in sync with the statements given by the natives. Station House Officer (SHO) of Mokhampura police station, Sukhminder Singh told HT, “As far as I know, there has been no stone pelting at the spot of the accident when the train passed.”

The locals were hence, persistent that the driver was lying especially about the stone pelting incident.