The Mehrabpur derailment was a fatal

railway accident Classification of railway accidents, both in terms of cause and effect, is a valuable aid in studying rail (and other) accidents to help to prevent similar ones occurring in the future. Systematic investigation for over 150 years has led to the r ...

that occurred shortly after 02:00 local time on 19 December 2007 near the town of

Mehrabpur Mehrabpur ( ur, ), ( Sindhi:محرابپور), is a city in the Naushahro Firoz District in Sindh province of Pakistan. The city is administratively subdivided into 8 Union Councils. It has a busy railway station on the main railway line between ...

in the

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Incident

The train, "Karachi Express", was an express service from

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, and was packed with passengers returning home for the

Eid ul-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's comm ...

Islamic holiday. At around 2:25 a.m. local time, fourteen of the train's sixteen carriages left the tracks, some being mangled by the crash, others simply sliding down an embankment into the water. Sabotage and terrorism were ruled out as the reason for the crash, with officials believing a faulty track was the cause of the derailment.Aziz, Abdul
Sabotage unlikely in train crash
''

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

'', 20 December 2007. The death toll was initially estimated as at least 56 people, but Junaid Qureshi, director of operations for the state-run

Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger servi ...

, later lowered the official estimate to 40 deaths and 269 injuries. Among local people and those who were traveling through accident area, opinions about the number of deceased is much higher, estimated between 400 and 800 dead (with an average of around 500) and over a thousand injured. This is based upon the fact that 14

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s were almost completely wrecked, and only two of the carriages were left more or less intact, with others being severely damaged. Given that the accident took place in the holiday period, practically all the seats and sleepers were occupied, bringing the number of people in one carriage close to 80, therefore justifying higher estimation.Pakistan lowers train death toll
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

'', 20 December 2007.

References

Derailments in Pakistan Railway accidents in 2007 2007 in Pakistan Naushahro Feroze District History of Sindh (1947–present) December 2007 events in Pakistan Accidents and incidents involving Pakistan Railways {{Pakistan-rail-transport-stub