Newsman: India’s worst rail crash in over two decades on Saturday killed at least 288 people ,officials said. An electronic signaling system error led to the train derailment in India that killed nearly 300 people and injured hundreds more, officials said Sunday. The error caused a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train in India’s eastern state of Odisha, creating a disastrous pileup that involved a second passenger train as well.
One train in Friday’s accident also hit a freight train parked nearby in the district of Balasore in Odisha state in the east of the country, leaving a tangled mess of smashed rail cars and injuring 803.
The death toll has reached 288, said K. S. Anand, chief public relations officer of the South Eastern Railway.Dead bodies are still trapped in the mangled coaches and the rescue operation is continuing the death toll is expected to rise. A preliminary report indicates that the accident was the result of signal failure, Anand said.
“The Coromandel Express was supposed to travel on the main line, but a signal was given for the loop line instead, and the train rammed into a goods train already parked over there. Its coaches then fell onto the tracks on either side, also derailing the Howrah Superfast Express,” he said.
An Odisha government statement revised the death toll to 275 on Sunday. More than 850 others were injured as of Saturday night, according to officials. Earlier Saturday, the Indian army assisted police and the National Disaster Response Force, as well as other rescue teams, to search for survivors.
“We are not very hopeful of rescuing anyone alive,” Sudhanshu Sarangi, Odisha’s fire services chief told reporters on Saturday morning. Footage from the site of the accident showed bodies lined up along the train tracks while authorities transported injured survivors to hospitals. Odisha’s Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said at the time that more than 200 ambulances were in service.
The passenger trains, carrying 2,296 people, were not overspeeding, she said. Trains that carry goods are often parked on an adjacent loop line so the main line is clear for a passing train.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the scene, talked to rescue workers and inspected the wreckage.
“(I) took stock of the situation at the site of the tragedy in Odisha. Words can’t capture my deep sorrow. We stand committeed to providing all possible assistance to those affected,” Modi said.
