Volume : 4 | Issue : 6 | June 2015 ISSN - 2250-1991 Research Paper Management The Human Intervention in Train Safety on Indian Railways Assistant Professor, ITM Business School, Warangal, Telangana T.Srinivas State, India Dr.M.Vidyasagar Professor, Dept.of Public Administration & HRM, Kakatiya Univer- Reddy sity, Warangal. Telangana State, India The Indian Railways are under pressure to meet the transportation demand due to enhanced economic growth in the country. Accidents in transportation industry happen every day and given bad impact to the industry. Public transports become an alternative to the urban people, as the traffic congestion getting worse today which will results on increasing number of locomotives, as to fulfil the service demands, at the same time will increase number of train drivers, shifts, rail traffic congestion and other challenges. Another important issue will rise from this situation; safety. Safety is important as technology advancement increasing daily. It is important for us to understand and investigate the performance of the train driver in order to ensure safety. Human performance and reliability become very important today when error and accident ABSTRACT causation sometimes were blamed to the human. Human element continues to be the major contributing factor for train accidents. The overall message from this paper is that railway accident investigations provide a useful source of data on human factors issues and their impact on railway safety, from this we have to learn the lessons and take appropriate measures and avoid the accidents. KEYWORDS INTRODUCTION Indian Railways are not so aggressive in launching the high Indicative Accidents: Averted collisions speed trains; IR is running the trains with a maximum speed of Breach of block rules 150 Km/hr ensuring safety. Indian railways have a strong net Signal passing at danger work of loyal and committed workforce. Safety of travelling public and Goods has always occupied a centre stage in Indian A study of the consequential accidents which occurred on Railways and a Safety Action Plan directed towards continuous the Indian Railways for the five year period from 2005-06 to reduction in risk level to customers has been envisaged in the 2009-10 indicates a total of 965 cases. Out of these total of form of Corporate Safety Plan (2003-13), which advocates for 965 cases, accidents recorded due to human failure is 832 inculcation of safety culture on all fronts and development of cases i.e. 86.21% were attributed to human failures. Railway man power using simulation, advanced multimedia & interactive employees were responsible for 431 cases (44.66% of total training aids and also by conducting regularly safety seminars. 965 cases) and balance 401 cases (41.55% of total 965 cas- es) were attributed to outsiders, failure of other than Railway SAFTETY PERFORMANCE ON INDIAN RAILWAYS: staff. Indian Railways has delivered excellent safety performance during the past few years through its preventive safety meas- The accident cases attributed to failure of equipment is 32 ures to restrain collisions & derailments. The accidents rate de- (3.31% of total), cases recorded under sabotage are 48 creased during the last five years. (4.97% of total), accidents recorded on combination of fac- tors are 6 (0.62% of total), cases of incidental accidents are ACCIDENTS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS: 35(3.62% of total) and 12 cases (1.24% of total) recorded Consequential accidents on Indian Railways during 2005-06 to 2009- were could not be established conclusively. 10, indicate a total of 965 cases. Out of which 832 accidents record- ed on human failure i.e. 86.21 percent. This need to be curbed. Table 2: Consequential Train Accidents during 2005-06 to 2009-10 For statistical and analysis purposes, the accidents are classified Type of 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 as “Consequential accidents”, “Indicative accidents”, “Other Accident train accidents” and “Yard accidents”. The first three catego- 9 8 8 13 9 ries of accidents involve trains, but the last category deals with Collision accidents occurring at shunting, loco and marshalling yards 3.85% 4.10% 4.12% 7.34% 5.45% and do not involve trains. Though both consequential and 131 96 100 85 80 Derailments other train accidents involve trains, the difference between the 55.98% 49.23% 51.55% 48.02% 48.48% two categories is based on whether the repercussions of the Manned Level 10 7 12 7 5 accident – cost of damage, period of disruption and injury to Crossing Gate persons – exceeded the specified threshold values. Accidents 4.27% 3.59% 6.19% 3.95% 3.03% Unmanned These are further categorised as follows: 65 72 65 62 65 Level Crossing Consequential Accidents: Collisions 27.78% 36.92% 33.51% 35.03% 39.39% Fire cases Accidents Level Crossing accidents 15 4 5 3 2 Derailments Fire in Train Miscellaneous cases 6.41% 2.05% 2.58% 1.69% 1.21% 366 | PARIPEX - INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH Volume : 4 | Issue : 6 | June2015 ISSN - 2250-1991 4 8 4 7 4 • Using 60kg rails, 260 meter long welded rail panels and Miscellaneous improved flash butt welding technology. 1.71% 4.10% 2.06% 3.95% 2.42% • Introduction of Self Propelled Accident relief Trains (SPART) with speed potential of 160/200 Kmph on trial basis with Total 234 195 194 177 165 a view to putting in place a fast and reliable disaster man- Accident agement system. per million 0.28 0.23 0.22 0.2 0.17 • Introduction of crash worthy LHB coaches with anti-climb Kilometers feature. • Rehabilitation of identified 17 distressed bridges over next one year. Table 3: Causes of Accidents during 2005-06 to 2009-10 • Provision of comprehensive fire and smoke detection sys- tems. Cause 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 • Provision of portable fire extinguishers in Guard-cum-Brake 120 85 87 76 63 Vans, AC Coaches and Pantry Cars in all trains. Failure of • Use of fire retardant furnishing materials in coaches. Railway staff 51.28% 43.59% 44.85% 42.94% 38.18% • Four companies women RPF personnel set up and another 8 to be set up to strengthen the security of rail passengers, Failure of 86 84 81 75 75 especially women passengers. other than • Recruitment of RPF with 10% vacancies reserved for wom- Railway staff 36.75% 43.08% 41.75% 42.37% 45.45% en. • Five fellowships in national universities to be instituted to Failure of 8 9 9 6 motivate students to study and undertake research on IR equipment related issues at M.Phil and Ph.D. levels. 3.42% 4.62% 4.64% 0.00% 3.64% • Setting up of a chair at TERI promoting railway related re- 6 8 7 13 14 search to reduce carbon footprint. Sabotage 2.56% 4.10% 3.61% 7.34% 8.48% HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS • Ergonomics is the design and engineering of human-ma- Combination 0 1 0 4 1 chine systems for the purpose of enhancing human perfor- of factors mance. Ergonomics is the scientific study of human work con- 0.00% 0.51% 0.00% 2.26% 0.61% ditions, especially the interaction between man and machine. Ergonomics is a term taken from the Greek work “ergon,” 11 7 8 5 4 Incidental meaning work, and “nomos,” meaning natural laws. The goal 4.70% 3.59% 4.12% 2.82% 2.42% of ergonomics is to make work more comfortable and to im- prove both health and productivity. Psychology, industrial en- Could gineering, computer science, biomechanics, and safety engi- not be 3 1 2 4 2 established neering all play a role in ergonomics. conclusively 1.28% 0.51% 1.03% 2.26% 1.21% Human Factors • The study of human factors examines how humans interact Under 0 0 0 0 0 Investigation with machines and other people (pilots, air traffic control- 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% lers, or design and acquisition personnel) and determines whether procedures and regulations take into account hu- Grand Total 234 195 194 177 165 man abilities and limitations. • Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline * Provisional concerned with the understanding of interactions among Rail passengers deserve safe and comfortable travel. Safety humans and other elements of a system, and the profes- is a necessary mandate for running trains. With the untiring sion that applies theory, principles, data, and other meth- endeavour of the railway family to address human failure and ods to design in order to optimize human well-being and technical deficiencies, there has been a significant reduction overall system performance. in the incidence of rail accidents. Even though the volume of • The discipline is rooted in understanding how people use passenger and freight traffic increased manifold, the number tools, products, and systems to accomplish desired tasks, of consequential train accidents per million train kilometre has and it seeks to eliminate or, at least, manage the human decreased from 0.41 in 2003-04 to 0.13 at the end of 2011- errors that sometimes do occur. 12. The target of bringing this figure to 0.17 by 2012-13, stip- • Human factors engineering is the application of human ulated under the corporate safety plan introduced since 2003 factors information to the design of tools, machines, sys- was surpassed in the year 2011-12 itself. Railways strive to tems, tasks, jobs, and environments for safe, comfortable, work towards a zero accident situation. and effective human use. The Committees headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar and Sh. Sam REASONS FOR OCCURANCE OF ERRORS Pitroda have laid down a roadmap for improving safety and • Bench marking system in railways to decide the number bringing about modernisation of Railways.