Mumbai is a city of 16 million inhabitants, of whom 6 million ride the city's three main line . Trains designed to hold 1,700 passengers carry as many as 4,700 during peak hours in a bone-crushing 1.4 bodies per square foot of space.
As a result, some 3,500 passengers, or 10 a day, are killed annually in grisly accidents. Some are crushed to death by fellow riders or under speeding trains after falling out of doors that are typically left open to accommodate more riders. Others are killed by moving trains while crossing tracks to avoid crowded pedestrian walkways.
But more than half of all train-related deaths -- some 2,000 a year -- occur when passengers take shortcuts along the tracks to avoid walkways teeming with hawkers selling snacks, flowers and other goods. Impatient commuters risk their lives crossing the tracks to reach nearby platforms.
And some die simply, because they are careless and want to spent their idle time gossiping in the middle of tracks.
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