Thirteen people including a loco pilot and an assistant loco pilot have been declared dead in the train accident in Andhra Pradesh, on the Vizianagaram-Visakhapatnam line of East Coast Railway on Sunday, October 29. Twelve of the victims – ten men and two women – were identified as natives of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, and Srikakulam districts in AP. Loco pilot SMS Rao from Visakhapatnam, assistant loco pilot Suvvari Chiranjeevi from Srikakulam, and two other Railways staff members also died in the accident. The accident happened when the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada overshot the signal and hit the Visakhapatnam-Palasa passenger train from behind while the latter train was waiting for a signal, causing at least four coaches to derail. While Andhra government officials initially said 14 people died in the incident, they later clarified that the toll stands at 13 as of 12.30 pm on Monday.
A railway gangman named Chintala Krishnam Naidu from Vizianagaram and another railway employee, Palasa passenger guard M Srinivas, also passed away in the accident. Srinivas breathed his last at the Visakhapatnam Railway Hospital after suffering injuries in the collision. The other victims who were identified are Kanchubaraki Ravi from Godikommu, Vizianagaram; Gidijala Lakshmi from SP Ramachandrapuram, Srikakulam; Karanam Appalanaidu and Pilla Nagaraju from Kapusambham, Vizianagaram; Challa Sathish from Vizianagaram; Tenkala Sugunamma from Mettavalasa, Srikakulam; Reddi Seetham Naidu from Reddipeta, Vizianagaram; and Majji Ramu from Gadabalavalasa in Vizianagaram. One body is yet to be identified. Their bodies will be handed over to their respective families on Monday, officials said.
Around 54 persons who got injured in the train accident were shifted to various hospitals in Vizianagaram, while a few people who were in a critical state were shifted to the King George Hospital in Vizag. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will visit the accident site and also meet the injured survivors on Monday, October 30. The state government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for deceased persons from Andhra Pradesh, and Rs 2 lakh for victims from other states. Injured persons from Andhra Pradesh and other states have been offered Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50,000 as compensation, respectively.
The accident happened when the two passenger trains collided between Alamanda and Kantakapalle in Vizianagram district, along the Vizianagaram-Kottavalasa section of Waltair Division of East Coast Railway, on the Howrah-Chennai Main Line. Around midnight, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that 11 coaches from the front of the Visakhapatnam - Palasa train had reached the next station, Alamanda, while the rear nine coaches of the Visakhapatnam - Rayagada train were pulled back to the previous station, Kantakapalle. Other than the derailed and affected coaches, all other coaches were cleared from the site late in the night, he said.