On June 3, 2023, India experienced a real tragedy. Indeed, according to the information relayed, an accident involving three passenger trains left at least 288 dead and 850 injured in the east of the country. It was one of India’s worst rail accidents in many years. The toll could also increase in the hours to come, because many passengers would still be trapped in the rubble.
Poignant images relayed by AFP journalists on the spot show overturned wagons, rescuers working tirelessly to extract survivors from metal carcasses, as well as corpses covered in white shrouds lying next to the tracks. The testimonies of the survivors are also very moving. Some said they were trapped under the debris, while others said they were suddenly awakened by the collision.
Since the turn of the century, India has already experienced many rail accidents, but the authorities have taken steps to improve safety on the rails. Despite these efforts, accidents still occur, sometimes with very heavy tolls, such as that of June 6, 1981 in eastern India, which caused between 800 and 1,000 deaths.
The Indian Prime Minister said he was “distressed” by this tragedy, and the authorities mobilized their army to come to the aid of the victims. This disaster is a reminder of the importance of safety on the rails, and the issues related to the modernization of technologies used by passenger trains