AMRITSAR: Eyewitnesses of the horrifying accident, in which 58 persons were mowed down by a speeding train in Amritsar on October 18, blamed the railways department for its laxity which resulted in the mishap. On Thursday, TOI spoke to several eyewitnesses of the incident who had arrived at the office of the Amritsar Improvement Trust to record their statements with special executive magistrate B Purushartha during a public hearing.According to Vijay Chandok, she was at her home when a loud noise drew her to the window. “It was dark outside. I couldn’t see clearly but I could hear people yelling and crying for help. I couldn’t understand for long what has happened,” she said. She said it was common for people of the area to cross the rail tracks but she never thought of such an accident. “I think if the train was at a slower speed the accident could have been averted,” she said.Sources suspected that those involved in the arrangement of Dussehra festival could have sent their trusted ones to record the statements to put the whole responsibility of the incident on railways. However, all witnesses TOI spoke to claimed that they had come on their own and were not under any pressure. Almost every eyewitness said announcements were made from stage to caution poeple standing on the rail track.Balwinder Singh, a resident of Amarkot Abadi, said, “Earlier two trains had passed from there but nothing happened. They were at slow speed, but suddenly one train came from nowhere and took several lives.”He said he had been watching Dussehra festival for over two decades but such an accident had never happened. “It is not that people had gathered on the rail track for the first time,” he said.Deepak Sharma, another witness of the tragedy, alleged, “Driver must have seen a gathering on the rail track. He was either drugged or was careless. If he had applied the brakes on time, the train could have stopped ahead of the gathering of the Dussehra revellers.”Another eye witness Preeti Kumari, whose house is close to rail track near Joda Phatak, said she was aware of trains crossing the spot, but not with the speed that Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU had crossed on that fateful day.Fifty one eyewitnesses of the rail mishap recorded their statements with special executive magistrate B Purushartha on Thursday. Purushartha also visited the site of accident near Joda Phatak to take first hand account of the incident. He also visited the cabin of railway’s gateman at the railway crossing and monitored the speed of the passing trains. He was accompanied by deputy commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha, additional deputy commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal and deputy commissioner police Amrik Singh Powar.

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