BALASORE, India — The derailment in eastern India that killed at least 275 people and injured hundreds more was caused by an error in the electronic signaling system, which caused a train to mistakenly change tracks and collide with a freight train, authorities said Sunday.
Authorities were working to clear the twisted wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed late Friday in the Balasore district of the eastern state of Odisha. It was one of the rail accidents with the most deaths in the country in decades.
The Odisha government gave a revised death toll of 275 in a statement, after a senior state official said more than 300 had died on Sunday morning. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to report to the press.
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
Preliminary investigation indicated that the Coromandel Express, a high-speed train, received a signal to enter the main track, said Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official. But the signal was later removed, and instead the train entered an adjoining branch track, where it collided with a freight train loaded with iron. Following the collision, carriages of the Coromandel Express overturned onto another track, derailing the oncoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express, causing a three-train collision.
Passenger trains, carrying a total of 2,296 people, were not speeding, he said. It is customary to park freight trains on side tracks to clear the main route for other convoys.
Verma attributed the event to an error in the electronic signaling system. A detailed investigation will reveal whether the error was human or technical, she said.
The tragedy happened in India.
THE ELECTRONIC SYSTEM MONITORS THE SIGNALS THAT INDICATE THE DISTANCE FROM ANOTHER TRAIN
The electronic system is a safety mechanism designed to prevent conflicting train movements. It also monitors the status of signs that tell drivers how far away the next train is, how fast they can go, and the presence of stopped trains on the tracks.
“The system is 99.9% error free. But the possibility of a 0.1% error is always there,” said the official. When asked if the accident could be the result of sabotage, she replied that “nothing is ruled out.”
On Sunday, only a few overturned and twisted wagons remained as remains of the tragedy. Railway workers labored under blazing sun to lay concrete blocks and repair broken tracks. A team with bulldozers was removing mud and debris to clear the site.
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THE SURVIVORS
In one of the hospitals almost 9 miles from the scene, the survivors spoke of the horror of the accident.
Inder Mahato, a warehouse worker, did not have a precise recollection of the event, but said he heard a loud bang when the Coromandel Express collided with the freight train. The impact caused Mahato, who was in the bathroom, to briefly lose consciousness.
Shortly after he opened his eyes and through the forced door he saw people moaning in pain and many already dead. Others were desperately trying to get out of the twisted wreckage of the wagon.
Mahato, 37, spent hours trapped in the bathroom before rescuers managed to get him out. His friends were not so lucky. Four of them died, he noted.
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PROBLEMS IDENTIFYING THE BODIES OF LOVED ONES
Meanwhile, many desperate people were having trouble identifying the bodies of their loved ones due to the brutal injuries. Others searched hospitals to check if their relatives were alive.
Outside the same hospital where Mahato was recovering, Bulti Khatun walked in a daze with an identity card belonging to her husband, who was traveling to the southern city of Chennai on the Coromandel Express.
Khatun said she had visited the morgue and other hospitals to find him, but had been unsuccessful.
“I am helpless,” she said sobbing.
During the night of Saturday, 15 corpses were recovered and the work continued during the early morning, with gigantic cranes to remove a locomotive that was on top of a wagon. No bodies were found in the locomotive and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.
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MODERNIZATION OF THE RAILWAY NETWORK IN INDIA
The disaster came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized modernizing India’s rail network, which dates back to the British colonial era. India this year became the most populous country in the world with 1.420 million inhabitants.
Despite government actions to improve rail safety, hundreds of accidents occur each year on the country’s rail system, the world’s largest network run by a single direction.
Chaotic scenes ensued on Friday night, with rescuers boarding wrecked carriages to open doors and windows with torches in an attempt to save people trapped inside.
Modi visited the disaster site on Saturday to discuss relief efforts and talk with rescue officials. She also visited a hospital where she asked the doctors about the care provided to the injured and talked with some of the victims.
HUMAN ERROR?
Most of the rail accidents in India are attributed to human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains in the country each day, covering 40,000 miles of track.
