THE death of two young people after they fell off a train roof at Akhaura in Brahmanbaria on April 2, whilst they were creating TikTok videos, is shocking. It is reported that the four young people in a group climbed onto the roof of a running train, the Paharika Express headed for Sylhet from Chattogram. When the train reached the Mogra railway bridge after crossing the Gangasagar station about 11:00am, all the four, three making videos on their phones of the other who was acting, fell off the roof after they had stumbled on a wire laid along the railway. One of them died on the spot and the other died on way to hospital. The other two were admitted to a health complex. The family of one of the deceased say that they were travelling for fun during Eid holidays. But what is more worrying about this is that this was not the first incident in which people travelling on the train roof fell off and died.
There have been reports in the past on such incidents. And, the Railways Act 1890 lays out that passengers, after being warned by the railway people to desist, persist in travelling on the roof, steps or footboards, they would be punished with a fine, up to Tk 50, and might be removed from the railway. This brings to the fore whether the railway people have even tried to enforce the provision. Besides, a fine up to Tk 50, an amount that may have been fitting in the 1890s, is not at all deterrent against such grave offences that can result in death. The railway authorities are reported to have given directives against all forms of travelling on train roofs. The High Court on July 21, 2022 also came down heavily on the railway authorities, noting that no passenger can travel on train roofs. The court that time said that if trains carried passengers on the roof, appropriate action would be taken against the officials responsible who failed to stop such travelling. Reasons for riding train roofs can be multiple 鈥� cultural practice especially to accommodate more passengers when trains are overcrowded, the lack of enforcement which encourages others to ride train roofs when they see others doing this, adventure or historical context in which it had been common before safety regulations were established.
Whatever the reason is, it all gets down to the lack of enforcement that poses serious risks. Travelling on train roofs is illegal and highly dangerous. The authorities should, therefore, prevent risky train roof riding at any cost whilst they should run awareness campaigns against the practice.
