Ghotki rail crash

The railway accident of Sarhad was the collision of three long-distance trains on 12 July 2005 on the railway line Karachi - Lahore in Sarhad railway station in Sindh province in southern Pakistan. 137 people lost their lives.

Starting position

The Quetta Express to Quetta drove around 4:00 clock in the morning in the Sarhad railway station and held there on the drive-through track due to a technical problem -25 minutes long. The train would have to be secured against the following trains by the track on which he stood, closed to the entrance of another train and following trains by a passing siding should have been conducted. Exactly what is not, which was based on a programming error was due to a signal failure. The automatic also blocked attempts by the dispatcher to set the route by hand accordingly.

The accident

The Quetta Express was followed by the Karachi Express from Lahore to Karachi. Meanwhile, train drivers were caused by signal interference the entry signal of the station, a light signal, a green light, so " ride free". The Karachi Express ran then in the station and on the stationary Quetta Express on there. Car overturned, three of them on the adjacent track to traffic the opposite direction, shortly after the coming of Karachi Tezgam Express one and the overturned car drove into into it. He was traveling to Rawalpindi.

In the first reports about the accident yet, there was talk that in which death has an engine driver of the Karachi Express 've read a signal wrong, but this proved to be incorrect in the course of the ensuing accident investigation.

Follow

16 cars were broken in the accident, 12 of the Quetta Express, three of Tezgam Express and one of the Karachi Express. Of the approximately 2000 people on the trains 137 were killed, including the locomotive crew of the Karachi Express and at least 176 injured.

A number of high-ranking employee of Pakistan Railways who were responsible for signaling were suspended after the accident by the service.