Passengers travelling in Pushpak Express from Lucknow to Mumbai last week reached late, but safe. They had no idea that a tragedy had just been averted.

It could have been the third accident in a row that week, but for the timely intervention of the Deputy Station Superintendent and some alert Railway staff at Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, who used a walkie-talkie to instruct the train driver to stop when they saw the train proceeding from Burhanpur despite a traffic block.

The 10 km Burhanpur-Asirgadh Road-Waghoda stretch had been blocked for an hour for maintenance work by the engineering department.

“The Assistant Station Master (ASM), Burhanpur, received (message regarding) departure of the train from Asirgadh section at 1:15 pm, and obtained line clear for Waghoda station at 1:16 pm and gave through signal to the train,” says an official document seen by BusinessLine.

“The ASMs are trained such that when they plan a traffic block, they have to simultaneously place a collar on the signal button. The collar should be removed when the traffic block is cancelled. As long as the collar is placed, the signal button will not get pressed even if the ASM presses it by mistake.

In this case, the ASM did not place the collar, which was the first mistake. And when the ASM pressed the signal, it got pressed, giving a green signal to the train,” explained a source.

In this case, the ASM seems to have faltered in two ways. A disciplinary authority has reprimanded the ASM for having failed to put a button cap on the concerned signal, and caution plate on the block instrument.

Experts point out that such small oversights creating potential safety hazards are not uncommon. Which is why they are calling for cutting-edge safety training of staff, as seen in operation theatres or air traffic control systems.

The new Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani was most recently with Air India, and there is hope that his experience in airline safety will now come in handy.

In a power-packed interaction with the Railway Board, Lohani has already told his staff that safety will be his top priority.

August saw three major railway accidents — the derailment of Utkal Express, KaifiyatExpess and Duronto Express. The Pushpak Express incident happened within days of the Utkal Express accident at Khatauli, which claimed 24 lives.