An electronic signaling system problem that drove the trains onto the wrong tracks is said to have led to the derailment of trains in eastern India that resulted in at least 288 fatalities and more than 800 injuries, according to a railway official.
Regarding the precise sequence of events leading up to the greatest train catastrophe in decades on Friday in the Balasore region of Odisha state, there is still some uncertainty.
Senior railway official Jaya Verma Sinha stated on Sunday that preliminary findings of the investigation showed that the high-speed Coromandel Express was initially given a signal to run on the main track, but that signal later changed, causing the train to instead enter an adjacent loop line where it collided with a freight train carrying iron ore.
She said the collision flipped the coaches of the Coromandel Express onto a different track, leading the inbound Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express to collide into the wreckage and also derailed.
According to Sinha, the 2,296-person passenger trains were not traveling at a high rate of speed. In order to leave the main line clear for passing passenger trains, cargo trains are frequently parked on a nearby loop line.
The electrical signaling system’s flaw, according to Sinha, was the primary contributor to the catastrophe. If the error was caused by a technological or human error, she said a thorough investigation will reveal.
Viashnaw Ashwini, the minister of the railways, did, however, suggest that there might have been some human error leading up to the disaster.
Vaishnaw stated that “we have identified the cause of the accident and the people responsible for it,” adding that it was “not appropriate” to divulge specifics prior to the release of a final inquiry report.
India has the fourth-largest railroad network in the world, yet despite government efforts to increase safety, hundreds of accidents happen there every year. On a network that spans 64,000km (40,000 miles), around 22 million people commute by 14,000 trains every day across India.
India’s prime minister said he sympathized with the crash victims’ suffering and declared that the government will make every effort to aid them and that anyone proven to be in fault would face severe punishment.
Source-Aljazeera
