Accidents can be avoided.

The classic principles of accidents are as follows:

1.       Unsafe conditions.

2.        Unsafe Actions.

While we are debating these points let’s consider the meaning of these principles.

Unsafe Acts are those which are caused by the person ignoring safety rules and meeting with accidents.

Unsafe Conditions are those which allow accidents to happen, because of poor design.

Unsafe Conditions are the main reason for causing accidents worldwide.

It is the duty of the manufacturer who should ensure that there are no unsafe conditions in their appliances and it should be idiot proof.

The guards of machines should be such that a person cannot put his fingers into the covered areas thereby injuring his or her fingers. We are aware of these rules while designing equipment.

It is only the responsibility of the makers who have to ensure these designs.

Industrial accidents are viewed very seriously in our country.

The Factory inspectorate penalizes establishments for not providing the safety guards etc, and the employee is very well protected against such accidents. The employer has not only to pay for the injured person’s treatment but ensure corrective actions are taken to stop such accidents in future.

If the government is so strict in enforcing such stringent rules to safeguard employees- which are correct- then why accidents on the railways are brushed aside as trespassing.

I read a report in the The Times of India about the recent accident of Ms Monika More in Mumbai.

She was trying to board a train which had just started and in the course of her run to get a foothold, she slipped in a trench along the platform in Ghatkopar station, and slipped. The fall was bad and her hands got under the wheels of the train. This resulted in the severing of her both hands.

The girl is in the hospital fighting to survive, but has lost both her hands. The hospital could not retrieve her hands.

This speaks of a great tragedy in our country. Very often the accident victims in the railways are not attended to immediately. Poor facilities are available on the railway stations, lack of infrastructure and ambulance often delay in rushing the patient to a hospital. This delay not only affects the likely treatment but very often leads to death.

The Railways carry millions of passengers on the suburban network in Mumbai.

They get huge revenues from passengers.

Often the courts have highlighted the poor facilities on the railway stations but to no avail.

There seems to be no concerted attempt to mobilize these facilities and save lives and limbs of passengers.

The Ghatkopar incident is that of an unsafe condition.

How can there be a sudden gap in the platform along the boarding side of the platform.

The railways say that there are equipments below the pit, hence cannot be covered with cement.

If that is so what prevents them from making a frame of angles and covering the pit with plates so that nobody would fall and their equipments can still function.

Previously the trains had fewer compartments, now days the trains have 12 and 15 compartments and the railways should realize the danger of these hazards as the train stops very near the pit.

Can the government wake up now at least and ensure that such death traps are avoided.

Unsafe conditions cannot exist anywhere and have to be plugged immediately.