Jorhat, May 9: Two persons were killed and one critically injured in separate train accidents in the district today.

Dulal Baruah, a van driver, died on the railway tracks in the Rajabari area, where train hits are a regular phenomenon.

In another accident, a man was run over by the Jorhat-Guwahati Jan Shatabdi Inter-city Express at Titabar railway station when he was crossing the tracks after alighting from the Digboi-Lumding passenger train, which had halted there.

At Rajabari, two van drivers who worked for SIS Prosegur - Baruah and Biswajit Neog - were going to their office on a motorcycle.

The motorcycle stopped on the tracks while they were crossing. Bystanders said the locomotive engine dragged the motorcycle and Baruah about 50 feet before the motorcycle got dislodged.

Smoke filled the area and there was a resounding sound of metal, eyewitnesses said.

Neog, who was driving, was critically injured. He has been admitted to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital.

Northeast Frontier Railway ascribed the deaths to the innumerable number of unauthorised crossings.

Nripen Bhattacharya, the public relations officer, NF Railway, Guwahati, said the stretch was accident-prone because of innumerable unauthorised railway crossings.

The railway control room report said the incident occurred around 9.15 this morning at an unauthorised crossing.

"Two persons on a bike collided with locomotive number 12519 while crossing the tracks. One person died on the spot and the other was critically injured and taken to JMCH".

There was no damage to the locomotive.

"Had the crossing been an unmanned one under NF Railway, a 'gate mitra' would have been there to assist the person to cross or prevented the motorcycle from crossing. However, in this case, the crossing was an unauthorised one. The railways is not responsible for any accident which takes place if a person crosses illegally," Bhattacharya added.

Apart from several households on the other side of the unauthorised crossing, there is also a preparatory school, Angels of God.

Last year a car had similarly been hit but the passengers had a miraculous escape.

Employees of the district transport office had employed a man, after having raised funds themselves, to supervise the unauthorised crossing to its office which sees heavy traffic everyday.

This helped save the lives of scores of people who visit the transport office everyday.

District transport officer U.K. Sharma said they had put up a bamboo bar which was put down whenever a train whistle was heard.

There is another crossing near Punjab Engineering, which has put up a signboard to warn people to be careful while crossing.

"The railways has done nothing," alleged Utpal Das, a Punjab Engineering employee.

Jorhat deputy commissioner Solanki Vishal Vasant said estimates had been sent to the government several times to construct a bylane parallel to the track on the other side so that they need not cross over, but this was yet to be sanctioned.

"We are now contacting the PWD commissioner to take up the matter for the 4.5km road," he said.