NEW DELHI — Officials of India's Kutch Express high-speed rail line had mixed emotions about Wednesday's tragic train accident that ran over and killed more than 16 people in the western Indian state of Surat (Gujarat).
The victims, all of whom were employed as "Microsoft Windows Vista Tech Support Engineers", were walking along the tracks when they were hit by the express late Wednesday, says police inspector H. M. Patel. Initially, we were concerned the loss of life would be much greater as the train that hit the computer tech support workers was only rated as having a 15-person "impact rating" before itself derailing.
''The driver of another train, the Gujarat Queen, informed us", Patel said. "This was clearly a case of unauthorized trespassing,'' Under India law, unauthorized trespassing is illegal whereas trespassing with a permit is both legal and still trespassing; similar to unauthorized murder, unauthorized, robbery and unauthorized rape, all are illegal unless a permit is issued by the State for such murder, robbery or rape.
Railway authorities identified the train that ran over the victims. The driver and assistant driver, both having valid permits for authorized vehicular manslaughter, were suspended for not informing officials about the mess.
Poor safety measures and unmanned crossings cause frequent rail accidents in India, where more than 13 million people, most of whom work in "Tech Support" and go by westernized names such as Mark, Rick and Steve, travel on the state-run railways every day.
Microsoft released a statement to reassure wary consumers that the tragic accident will not affect the quality of both tech support and the Windows Vista product line, both of which still suck.
Train kills 16 Tech Support workers in India, rated only for 15
- Login or register to post comments
- Flag as offensive
