Southern Railway launches drive to ensure safety at non-interlocked level crossing gates

Days after a speeding passenger train rammed into a school van, killing three students and injuring two others, at Semmankuppam in Cuddalore district on the morning of July 8, Southern Railway has launched an intensive drive to ensure safety at non-interlocked level crossing gates.

According to railway sources, the action plan devised at a meeting convened by Southern Railway General Manager R.N. Singh with top officials aims to eliminate untoward incidents at non-interlocked level crossings. Amid reports that the gatekeeper dozed off leaving the gate open, which led to the tragic accident, it was decided to ban gatekeepers with a history of unsafe working behaviour, particularly sleeping and alcohol consumption. Gatekeepers will be reassessed for their knowledge, discipline, and behaviour and given fresh competency certificates.

Senior officers were told to visit non-interlocked level crossings at random and check the Private Number register and status of the gate. In case of violations such as the gate being kept open without the permission of the Station Master, giving false confirmation to the Station Master on gate closure, not erecting red banners across the track etc., the gatekeepers will be immediately suspended, transferred, and steps will be taken for their removal from service.

A fresh study will be conducted in the next 10 days to examine the hours of work and period of rest (HOER) of gatekeepers at all non-interlocked level crossings, and their existing roster of 12-hour shifts will be “liberally” changed to 8 hours. Similarly, the working hours of Station Masters and Assistant Station Masters will also be revisited and relaxed depending on the workload, the sources said.

Ensuring visibility

Preliminary inquiries conducted by the railway police at the accident site in Semmankuppam revealed that there were wild bushes blocking visibility of the track on both sides. Even if drivers of an approaching vehicle were to look for trains, there was no visibility because of the bushes.The high-level meeting took note of this serious issue and issued instructions to the Principal Chief Engineer and Divisional Railway Managers to ensure visibility for road users for 5 m from the centre of the track on both sides.

“If visibility is found to be obstructed by bushes or other structures, the same should be cleared within the next 10 days without fail,” a note issued after the meeting said.

Engineering and safety officers were told to conduct surprise checks at all non-interlocked level crossings in the zone. to check if gatekeepers had put red flags across the track at day and red hand signal lamps at night when the gate was open to traffic. Only gatekeepers with 5 years of good track record should be posted at non-interlocked level crossing gates and those performing consistently well would be rewarded, the sources said.

Instructions were given to check the recordings of conversations between Station Masters and gatekeepers to ensure they followed the Gate Working Rules and did not adopt any shortcut methods in the operation of trains. “All gatekeepers shall be made aware of serious consequences of accidents at level crossing gates on account of their lapses, including possible arrest by police,” the note said.