2015 video of train accident in Mumbai shared as recent

What is the claim?

A 13-second clip circulating on social media claims to show a recent Indian Railways accident. The video shows a local train hitting the platform, with the first compartment partially mounting onto it. 

Several users shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Railway Minister “Ashwini Vaishnav”, watch this video, it is an amazing video! It is not clear whether it is a station or a circus show. Please tell us, what is going on in Indian Railways?(sic),” suggesting that the incident happened recently, after Vaishnaw became India's railway minister. Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here and here.

Screenshots of the social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is misleading. The video dates back to 2015 and shows a train accident that happened at Churchgate railway station, Mumbai, a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The incident happened when Suresh Prabhu was Union Railway Minister.

How did we find the truth?

A reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video led us to a BBC report which stated that the incident seen in the viral video actually happened in 2015. We found a slightly longer version of the video published on BBC News’ YouTube channel on June 29, 2015 (archived here), titled - India: Passengers leap from derailed train in Mumbai. 

The description of the YouTube video stated that the incident happened at the Churchgate railway station in Mumbai. The footage was released by station authorities showing the moment when the train hit the buffers and partly mounted onto the platform, leading to five people being injured.

The same video was also published by several other news organizations, including NDTV (archived here) and Aaj Tak (archived here). The reports stated that the driver lost control and couldn’t apply brakes. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the train coming from Bhayander had rammed into the dead end on platform number three of Churchgate station after the motorman failed to stop the train in time.

The viral video has been falsely linked to an accident under the current railways minister. Vaishnaw took charge of the ministry for the first time in July 2021, years after the incident occurred. At the time of the accident, Suresh Prabhu was the railway minister, and Manoj Sinha was the Minister of State for Railways.

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has been facing criticism after multiple train accidents happened across the country since he took charge. In 2023, a train accident in Balasore killed 293 passengers and injured 1,100 people. On June 17, 2024, another accident claimed nine lives and injured over 40 people when the Kanchanjunga Express was hit by a goods train in West Bengal. A month later, the derailment of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express in Uttar Pradesh killed four people. 

The verdict

An old video of a train accident at Churchgate railway station in Mumbai is being falsely passed off as a recent incident. The incident actually happened in June 2015, when Suresh Prabhu, not Ashwini Vaishnav, was the Union Minister of Railways. The viral clip shows the CCTV footage of the incident, which was released by the station authorities.