I spend time reading various sub reddits and one is Indians and trains. It seems to me that several hundred a day seem to die from as they call it “India’s number one predator”.
This raises several questions in my mind.
Are there any statistics regarding the actual death rate?
In the USA, if a train hits someone and it’s known, I’m pretty sure that they stop for investigation etc. Is that true in India?
If this is not the correct forum, please move or delete.
A starting point perhaps:
As per the Ministry of Railways, there have been more than 38,500 railway accidents from 1961 to 2019.[2] In 2019–20, the Indian Railways reported zero passenger deaths due to accidents for the first time in its history.[3] At least 313 people died in 40 train accidents in 2023–24 and 748 people have died in 638 train accidents in the previous ten years.[4] - SOURCE
In the US the train will definitely stop after an accident for investigation. I am not sure about India. One would assume the driver would not be aware an accident happened. If someone fell off the back they may not know an accident occurred.
I am sure we have all seen photos like the one below of some trains in India…the driver can’t possibly know (in most cases) if a person fell off and was hurt/died.
India has a lot of train accidents, but of course that is nothing compared the lives and resources taken in building the railway system, the privilege for which Indians were made to pay.
Stranger
Thanks for the link. I remember some of that from school, High school 1963, but not all of it of course. I’m going to watch the rest of her videos tomorrow.
For perspective, about 150,000 people in India are killed per year in traffic collisions. In the US that number is about 40,000. Train fatalities are practically a rounding error in comparison.
The listed Wikipedia not only doesn’t seem to classify deaths from falling off trains, but never even mentions this (frankly, absurdly dangerous) practice.
Do people routinely ride that that in India? Or are these “staged”? Would a lone body found along the tracks even get reported to the train authorities?
I mean, there is no way people don’t fall off. Isn’t there?
And why don’t they add more coaches?! Even flat cars would be an improvement.
I just saw a news report of a (stupid) motorcyclist that ducked under the crossing guard and got smucked by a train in CA. I’ll be they delayed the train for hours for what is an open and shut case. Stupid guy gets hit by train. Move on, let’s go home.
Very common in India. Why they do this and don’t run more trains or more cars I do not know.
Astounding.
Is life just cheap there?
or get their legs sliced off. One bump, one slip and slice and dice, baby.
As a comparison, there are around 800 train deaths in US each year. The vast majority are “trespassers” (essentailly anyone on the tracks that shouldn’t be).
That would seem to be more deaths by train in the US than in India.
Not what I would expect.
Well, the stats you posted seem to be about passenger and employee deaths, which is very low in the US. Not clear if there are stats for non-passenger or employees hit by trains, which is included in the US reporting.
But Indian trains are a TRIP to ride, the stations are like mayhem, so many people and stuff moving around. You arrive convinced you’ll never figure it out. But somehow you do.
When I was travelling it was common to hear people say, ‘You haven’t really visited India if you haven’t ridden a train!’ I don’t know if any other country is still running steam engines, but it’s very cool to see them still in action.
They say you get to see ALL of India whenever you take a train!
Though per capita, India has fewer traffic-related deaths than the United States (11.3 vs 12.9, per 100,000 inhabitants).
Some of the videos I’ve seen on Reddit are folks hanging out a door so their friend can take a video of their antics. Lean out too far and hit a sign or other obstacle and they’re gone.
Imaging going to their parents house and telling them…
I don’t think I could do it.
And it’s only about 20 pages into one of the most famous Indian-American novels of all time (Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake) that the main character’s father has a flashback to nearly dying in a train crash back in India.
Same story as anywhere else. Inadequate infrastructure and no capital to pay for buying / building more versus an exponentially increasing population.
Why aren’t the freeways where you live 25 lanes wide so there are no traffic jams in the morning or evening? Why don’t city buses come every 3 minutes so there’s no waiting?
The universal answer: That would cost more than we’re willing / able to spend.
And if anyone wants to see what the experience is like, I just recently watched this YouTube video in which YouTuber Noel Phillips rides an Indian train.
Related to the subject of Indian commuter trains are the dabbawalas, which are the people who transport lunches for office workers from their homes to their offices. Typically, these office workers left home early in the morning, while lunch was prepared at home later. The lunches are packaged in stainless steel containers called tiffins, which are picked up by the dabbawalas and delivered to the office worker. Thousands of these lunches are delivered, with remarkably few errors, to the extent of being a Harvard Business School case study. Here is a YouTube video showing the process.
