At least 13 children, aged between 7 and 11 years, were killed and seven others critically injured when a train hit a school van at an unmanned railway crossing in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district on Thursday morning.
The driver of the Tata Magic van of Divine Public School had his earphones on and ignored the gate mitra's warnings and the approaching train's whistle. He also died in the crash. The injured kids were admitted to health facilities in Kushinagar and those in nearby Gorakhpur district.
The Thawe-Kaptanganj passenger train was on way to UP's Gorakhpur from Bihar's Siwan when it rammed into the school vehicle near Dudhi village at around 7 am. "I shouted stop... stop. Students inside the van were also shouting 'bhaiyyaji...bhaiyyaji....train....train...' but the driver who was enjoying music did not listen," said a motorcyclist who was at the crash site.
"The train driver applied the brakes... still the impact was such that the van was badly smashed and got flung 50 metres away. We were shell shocked to see children screaming and then dying one by one. There was blood inside and outside the vehicle," he said.
President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the tragic accident. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex gratia of Rs two lakh to the families of those killed and ordered a state government inquiry. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also announced an ex gratia of Rs two lakh to the kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh to those with serious injuries and Rs 50,000 to those with minor injuries. He also ordered an inquiry.
"I am told that the van driver was had his earphones on. There are questions about his age too. This is a case of pure negligence. The guilty will face the severest punishment," said Adityanath, who rushed to the accident site.
The CM met the wailing parents and also saw the injured children in Gorakhpur's government hospital. He lost his cool when he was greeted with slogans like 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'. He asked the crowd to stop the 'drama'. "This is a tragedy. Stop this nautanki," he said.
Sanjay Yadav, CPRO, North Eastern Railways, also said the van driver did not heed to repeated warnings of the gate mitra (a person who alerts commuters about approaching trains at unmanned crossings) because he was running late in getting the children to the school.
This is the second tragedy to have struck schoolchildren this month. Twenty-three children were among 30 killed when a private school bus ferrying them home veered off the road and plunged into a 200-foot-deep gorge at Malakwal in Nurpur in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh on April 9.
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