Loco pilot under pressure to find boulders

BENGALURU: Where is the mystery boulder which supposedly caused the derailment of the Bengaluru -Ernakulam Inter-city Express which killed nine persons near Anekal, 40km from here? Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had tweeted that a boulder had caused the accident.
In a submission to an inquiry here on Tuesday, the All India Loco Running Staff Association alleged that the loco pilot of the train was under pressure to find boulders.
"Instead of conducting a fair inquiry, the administration is harassing loco crew by subjecting them to repeated medical tests and treating them like criminals… The administration is forcing (the loco pilot) to find boulders ...," the association said in a memorandum to the commissioner for railway safety who began his two-day statutory inquiry into the mishap.
"If boulders were there, they would have damaged the engine rail guards before derailing the coaches. No such damage to the engine was visible," it said, adding that the accident site was not on a ghat section.
"The railway administration tries to blame loco pilots . In a similar accident at Kuppam on June 3, 2014, the railway authorities succeeded in nailing the loco pilot. Such a biased inquiry has created severe resentment among loco pilots," it said.
The administration "has blamed the loco pilot saying that he has done nothing after the accident. Stones will be above rails after ballast unloading and miscreants place them on the rails for fun. Every train will find at least one case of such crushing which has never resulted in derailment," it said.