Preliminary investigations have revealed that an error in the electronic signaling system was responsible for one of India’s most devastating rail accidents in recent decades.
275 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in a rail accident in eastern India’s Orissa state on Friday, it said. CNN. A statement by the Orissa government revealed the death toll after a state official said the death toll was 300, the paper said.
The fatal accident occurred after a signal change caused the high-speed Coromandel Express to veer off the main line and enter the adjacent loop line, colliding with a freight train laden with ore. Associated Press report. A carriage of a passenger train landed on another track, derailing an arriving Esvantpur-Howrah express train, the newspaper said. (Related: Report: Violent ethnic clashes in India kill 50, displace more than 23,000)
Heavy equipment removes damaged passenger coaches from the tracks after a train crash in Balasore district, eastern Orissa, India, June 4, 2023.Reuters/Adnan Abidi
A senior railway official, Jaya Verma Sinha, said the cause of the accident was an error in an electronic signaling system, according to the Associated Press. Neither passenger train was overspeeding. Further investigation will assess whether the error was human or technical. Said Verma did not deny the possibility of sabotage.
Some railroad lines were still blocked, and families of the dead scrambled to reach the site of the wreckage, CNN reported. The extent of the injuries made it difficult for loved ones to identify some of the bodies, and many remained unidentified as of Sunday, according to CNN and Associated Press.
According to CNN, more than 13 million passengers use the Indian rail network every day. Governments face new demands to address safety issues, despite millions of dollars being poured into still-aging systems in the wake of the tragic accident, it said. The media reported.
