CHENNAI: With the Government Railway Police (GRP) having completed its investigation into the Arakkonam train mishap, that claimed 11 lives, besides injuring over 75 others on September 13 last year, a detailed chargesheet running to 600 pages will be filed in the trial court in Arakkonam on Friday.According to police sources, as many as 170 witnesses, including railway officials, injured passengers and villagers were examined during the investigation. “It’s a clear case of human error committed by the motorman leading to the accident,” a senior GRP official told Express.The 40-year-old motorman Raj Kumar was driving the MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) bound for Vellore Cantonment on September 13, 2011 and was overspeeding at 97 kmph as he left the Arakkonam Railway Station.“He started from Arakkonam at 9.15 pm. Hardly, in the next 10 minutes, the MEMU rammed into a Katapadi-bound passenger train, which was moving at caution speed near Chitteri,” a police official said. The motorman overshot the red signal as he was engaged in a cell phone conversation, the official added.Interestingly, the report of the Commissioner of Railway Safety that conducted the departmental probe also classified the accident under the category of “failure of the railway staff”.
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