Cuddalore train accident: Gatekeeper’s record punctures public narrative
The system and records will have a trail of the action taken. How could he have been sleeping or slept later if he shared PEN with the Station Master?” said the source.
CHENNAI: Eyewitness accounts from Semmankuppam revealing that gatekeeper Pankaj Sharma dozed off, leaving the gate open unattended, might not hold water if official records come into play in the ongoing investigations into the Cuddalore train tragedy that killed three school kids.
Highly placed railway sources disclosed to DT Next that gatekeeper Pankaj Sharma shared the Private Number Exchange (PNE) with the Station Master about the train approaching Alappakkam station at 7.04 am on Tuesday.
PNE is a confidential number exchanged only between the keeper of a non-interlocked level crossing gate and a station master. The number is shared by the gatekeeper to alert the SM of an approaching train.
“He (Gatekeeper) had shared the PNE at 7.04 am with Alappakkam Station Master to alert him of the train’s arrival to his station at 7.13 am. He did it after confirming the arrival of the train at Caperquarry halt station, from where it takes 10 to 12 minutes to reach his LC. The gate was closed at 7.06 am.
The system and records will have a trail of the action taken. How could he have been sleeping or slept later if he shared PEN with the Station Master?” said the source.
Conceding that the gatekeeper erred and violated the rules in acceding to public pressure and opening the closed gate, following pressure from two-wheeler riders, another railway source said, “After he closed the gate at 7.06 am, many motorcyclists quarrelled with him to open it.
He eventually yielded and opened it partially to let them pass through. However, the van driver also tried to sneak through, leading to a collision. That is why eyewitnesses say the gate was open at the time of the incident. It is a serious violation on the part of the gatekeeper.”
However, there is no denying that the overworked gatekeeper yielded to public pressures. It was the third consecutive night at the gate for Pankaj Sharma, who clocked 12 hours per day, which is permissible as per the rules for a category III level crossing gate.
Asked about the work stress, DREU's former vice president, R Elangovan, said that the railway authorities do not undertake a job analysis when they do the census for the classification of gates, which is done every three years. “If they do the job analysis as sincerely as they do the gate classification, the work pressure and resultant impact could be reduced considerably.”
