Skip to main content

Analysis of Causes of Rail Derailment in India and Corrective Measures

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Reliability and Risk Assessment in Engineering

Abstract

Railways provide the cheapest and most convenient mode of passenger transport both for long distance and suburban traffic; also, it plays a significant role in the development and growth of industries. Even though there are several advantages and safety in railway transport, the frequency of train accidents is still increasing. A train derailment can result in severe injuries or even death to passengers, railroad employees and bystanders. In 2007, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) reported nearly 2000 derailments on tracks all over the country. Whereas approximately 373 train derailments were reported by Indian Railways from 2009 to 2015. In the same duration of 6 years, there were total 803 accidents in Indian Railways killing 620 people and injuring 1855 people. 47% of these accidents were due to derailment of trains. Therefore, the statistical analyses were conducted to examine the effects of accident causes in India for last ten years. The analysis showed that broken rails or welds were the leading cause of derailments. Because of the seriousness of railway accidents, the study also aims to suggest the possibilities of minimizing devastating consequences of vehicle derailments by appropriate measure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Nayak PR, Rosenfield DB, Hagopian JH (1983) Event probabilities and impact zones for hazardous materials accidents on railroads, Report DOT/FRA/ORD-83/20. FRA, U.S. Department of Transportation

    Google Scholar 

  2. Treichel TT, Barkan CPL (1993) Working paper on mainline freight train accident rates. Research and test department, Association of American Railroads, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  3. Anderson RT, Barkan CPL (2004) Railroad accident rates for use in transportation risk analysis. Transp Res Rec J Transp Res Board 1863:88–98. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  4. Liu X, Barkan C, Saat M (2011) Analysis of derailments by accident cause: evaluating railroad track upgrades to reduce transportation risk. Transp Res Rec J Transp Res Board 2261:178–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) (2015) Office of safety analysis 3.01 accident trends–summary statistics. http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/publicsite/summary.aspx

  6. Evans AW (2007) Rail safety and rail privatisation in Britain. Accid Anal Prev 39(3):510–523

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Evans AW (2010) Rail safety and rail privatisation in Japan. Accid Anal Prev 42(4):1296–1301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Barkan C, Dick CT, Anderson R (2003) Railroad derailment factors affecting hazardous materials transportation risk. Transp Res Rec J Transp Res Board 1825:64–74. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  9. FRA Guide for Preparing Accident/Incident Reports (2011) U.S. Department of Transportation

    Google Scholar 

  10. Saccomanno FF, El-Hage S (1989) Minimizing derailments of railcars carrying dangerous commodities through effective marshaling strategies. Transp Res Rec 1245:34–51. TRB, National Research Council, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  11. 12th Report: Safety and security in Railways, Standing Committee on Railways, 14 Dec 2016. http://164.100.47.193/lsscommittee/Railways/16_Railways_12.pdf

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Prakash Kumar Sen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Sen, P.K., Bhiwapurkar, M., Harsha, S.P. (2020). Analysis of Causes of Rail Derailment in India and Corrective Measures. In: Gupta, V., Varde, P., Kankar, P., Joshi, N. (eds) Reliability and Risk Assessment in Engineering. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3746-2_28

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3746-2_28

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3745-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-3746-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics