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 == Accident rate == 

 Indian rail suffers about 300 accidents per year . 

 Safety statistics published by Loss Prevention Association India Ltd  show for the Year 2000 1282 deaths were attributed to railroad accidents; 0.5% of the 255,883 deaths attributed to natural and un-natural accidents.  A further 16,638 died from other rail road accidents (6.5% of accidental deaths).These rail related deaths compare with only 72 from air crash and 80,118 due to road traffic accidents (31.3% of accidental deaths). 

 To understand the statistics though, they should be at least compared over several years - were the proportions the same a decade ago? - was there some one-off event in 2000 that raised the numbers? 

 It would also be useful to compare say transport miles - there are 4.5 times the number of deaths in road traffic accidents but are 4.5 times the number of miles travelled in India by road compared with the number of miles travelled by rail? 

 How does the accident rate compare with other rail networks? 

 Chandigarh Tribune interview with MR IIMS Rana (Chairman of the Railway Board from March 31 2002) published September 28 2002 quotes Mr Rana on accidents as follows: 
 :: ""Over the years and decades, the safety performance of the Railways has been gradually improving. In the year 1960-61, there were 2131 accidents and in 2001-02, there were 415 accidents. This is despite the fact that there has been a five time increase in passenger and freight traffic. Let us compare with international standards. 

 ::""There is a universal index of million accidents per million train kilometres. This was 5.5 in 1960s and it has come down to 0.65 in 2000-01 and .55 (provisional figure) this year. If you look at the accident frequency per one million train kilometres (East Japan Railway annual report 2002), Japanese Railways has .65 and in Germany 0.91. That means we are almost the lowest in the world and this, mind you, is despite the fact that we don’t have too many technological inputs."" 

 On the subject of infrasturcture the interview reports: 

 ::""Q: What is the overall situation on the renewal of direly needed tracks. What about replacement and rehabilitation of old bridges? 

 ::""About Rs 3516.50 crore has been allocated for track renewal for 2002-03. The money allocated for rehabilitation of old bridges in this financial year is Rs 209.30 crore compared to Rs 111.53 crore in 2001-02. The budgetary allocation for rolling stock for this year is Rs 919.19 crore. Of the 1,19,984 railway bridges in India, 51,340 (44 per cent) are 100 years old. Till April 1 this year, 527 bridges were identified as distressed (which show signs of deterioration). Another 347 bridges are to be rehabilitated during 2002-03. Till July end, 61 such bridges had been rehabilitated. One thing that must be understood is that if some part of the railway infrastructure is weak, we introduce speed restrictions."" 

 An article on September 9 crash of the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express by the World Socialist Web site discusses whether sabotage or poor infrastructure maintenance are causes of the accident and notes that the Indian Rail officials were quick to blame saboteurs perhaps in an effort to deflect criticisim of poor maintenance. 

 The article cites statistics on bridges: India has 51,340 rail bridges that are more than 100 years old and another 89,076 that are more than 60 years old. Of those, 526 are classified as badly in need of repair or “distressed”.  In 2001 the Mangalore-Chennai Mail train crashed in Kerala due to bridge failure; 59 people killed and 200 injured.  The article suggested that the 2002 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express was probably due to bridge failure. 

 The article refers to a 1998 review committee led by retired Supreme Court judge H.L. Khanna which pointed out that the two factors responsible for most rail accidents over the past decade were the poor state of bridges and the lack of track maintenance.  Perhaps this Wkipedia article could reference the Khanna committee recommendations. 
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