Bharat is increasingly getting mobile, but so are accidental deaths of passengers/travellers. Of the three modes of transport, road accounts for 87%, rail 10% and air 3% of passenger travel, respectively.

While there exists a question mark on the safety of passengers travelling by all three modes of transport in India, those prone to the most accidental deaths are road travellers. However, the accidents which get maximum coverage as news items are rail accident deaths.

On 16 February 2025, the morning edition of most Indian newspapers carried two related stories of accidental deaths. Here is the story –

First, Road Accident Kills Ten: In the first accident, ten people were killed on a highway in the state of Uttar Pradesh. They died after the head-on collision of the Balero car in which they were travelling with a bus. Mercifully the bus passengers had a miraculous save.

The above-mentioned story was relegated as a passing reference on the inside pages of newspapers. It was unsurprising because road accidents have assumed such monstrous propositions in Bharat that these are no longer newspaper headline items – “only in 2023, a total of over 178,000 Bhartiyas died in road accidents that amount to nearly 475 daily deaths".

Two, New Delhi Railway Station Stampede Kills Eighteen: Around 9.45 p.m. on 15 February, a stampede on platforms 14 and 16 of New Delhi station killed at least 18 people and injured nearly a dozen. Ever since the unfortunate accident happened, it has been a breaking news story on 24×7 TV channels, is the front-page story in all leading dailies and the news has been carried by all the prominent news channels of the world.

As happens after every railway accident, the Prime Minister, Railway Minister and others from the ruling dispensation have condoled the deaths. And true to its salt, the opposition parties have put their guns on the heads of the government, blaming it for the accident. Another ritual of Indian Railways announcing a high-level committee to inquire has been completed.

Indian Railways have also completed another ritual of announcing compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to the next of kin of the dead, Rs. 2.5 lakh to the seriously injured and Rs. 1 lakh to those with minor injuries.

With the above rituals completed, the New Delhi station........

© News18