KOLLAM: Oachira is yet to recover from the shock of the gruesome accident which claimed five lives on Saturday night. The mini-lorry involved in the incident reportedly drove up onto the rail track without noticing the approaching train. The impact of the collision threw the vehicle to almost 300 metres away. The local people, who heard the sound of the collision, were the first to reach the spot.The Oachira police reached the spot and recovered the bodies. All the five died on the spot and Santhosh, who suffered serious injuries, was taken to the hospital. Three bodies were recovered from the track and the remaining two from a pool 200 metres away from the track.It is believed that they chose this less used level-cross as tarring work was progressing at the Vayana level-crossing.REPEAT OF MARARIKKULAM TRAGEDYIncidentally, the mishap took place just a couple of days before the first anniversary of a similar incident at an unmanned level-crossings at Mararikkulam in Alappuzha district, which is around 70 km from Thayyilmukku where the accident took place on Saturday. Four persons, including a German tourist couple, were killed when their car was hit by the Chennai-Alappuzha Express on August 8, 2010.Several lives had been lost in accidents at unmanned level-crossings along the Alappuzha-Kollam sector over the years and accidents and near mishaps have become common.One of the major tragedies at unmanned level-crossings in the country occurred at Cheppad, approximately 25 km from Oachira, where 35 persons were killed on July 14, 1996. The Ernakulam-Kayamkulam push-pull train rammed into a tourist bus carrying a marriage party there.Following the Mararikkulam incident, Southern Railway had organised massive public awareness campaigns and counselling programmes during August 2010. Alappuzha MP and Union Minister of State, K C Venugopal, had raised the issue of appointing personnel at unmanned level-crossings in the country, days after the Mararikkulam tragedy.The Minister said that steps had been taken even before the incident to appoint personnel at 20 of the total 44 level-crossings in his constituency.Urging the government and Railways to appoint guards at all level-crossings in the area, Karunagappally MLA C Divakaran said that the authorities had turned a deaf ear to the requests to appoint men at all unmanned level-crossings in the area.Couple of months ago, the Indian Railways said that it would focus on awareness programmes to promote safe behaviour at such intersections to reduce accidents. The announcement was made during the International Level Crossing Awareness Day on June 9.Public Relations Officer of Southern Railways, Thiruvananthapuram Division, said that the relatives of the deceased would not get any financial assistance from the Railways, as according to the Indian Railway Act, there is no provision to provide financial assistance.He said that there are around 114 unmanned level-crossings under the Thiruvananthapuram Division. With the number of accidents on the rise, Railways are in the process of manning 20 of these level-crossings within this month. Training for the ex-servicemen, recruited for the process, is nearing completion and works at the level-crossings are almost over, he said However, the Kottampally level-crossing does not come under these 20 level-crossings, as the traffic through it is comparatively low.
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