'Turna Nishitha drivers were sleeping during Brahmanbaria crash'

An investigation report on Tuesday’s train accident in Brahmanbaria blamed the driver, assistant driver and guard of Turna Nishitha, reports UNB.

Members of the investigation committee submitted their report to Md Shamsuzzaman, director general of Bangladesh railway, on Friday.

Dhaka-bound Turna Nishitha from Chattogram and Chattogram-bound Udayan Express from Sylhet collided at 3:00am on Tuesday at Mandabhag railway station of Koshba under Brahmanbaria.

Md Nasir Uddin, convener of divisional-level probe committee, said the report was submitted on Friday though it was supposed to be filed on Thursday. It could not be submitted on Thursday as the process for submitting the report was incomplete.

After visiting the spot, the complete probe report was submitted to the DG. He, however, informed that the railways minister and DG will formally brief in Dhaka in this regard.

Nasir said the train driver of Turna Nishitha Taser Uddin and assistant driver Opu Dey had been blamed for the accident while guard Abdur Rahman was blamed for negligence. The committee confirmed that the two drivers were sleeping.

However, the drivers claimed that they could not see the signal of the station due to fog and deposition of soil. But the claim was not found to be true, the railway authorities said.

On Thursday, the media was briefed about the cause of the accident and several recommendations after completion of 99 per cent investigation.