Risking Limbs and Life – Railway fatalities in Vadodara: (A Retrospective Study)

The injuries and deaths due to accidents are inescapable in the modern way of living. The accidental deaths are mostly due to the road traffic accidents but the deaths due to railway fatalities are also not negligible, especially in the areas where railway traffic is higher. Approximately 350 trains of various types pass regularly per day from Vadodara station. Vadodara is a city of Gujarat, which is well connected to the other places by the railway route, that's why railways is the major mode of transportation of the passengers and goods as well; consequently the incidences of railway fatalities and mishaps are also higher at this junction. Most of the reported cases of railway deaths brought to the conclusion that either the victim was directly hit by the train or died due to some other reason but the body was recovered in the vicinity of the railway platforms. To know the epidemiology of railway deaths and the pattern of injuries produced in such accidents, we have conducted a retrospective study in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College, Vadodara. Eighty six cases of railway deaths were brought for the postmortem examination during the year 2007 and therefore all the data related to the age and sex of the victim, seasonal variations, type of train involved, part of the body affected and the pattern of injuries in different parts of the body were studied with detailed autopsy examination and subsequent statistical analysis. Eventually the findings claimed that a majority of the victims were male of 20-60 years of age that died due to multiple injuries of the limbs in warmer season of the year while they tried to cross the railway track without noticing a fast moving train.