Live updates about possible signal failure after rescue efforts end

The incident at a Balasore train station in Odisha, India, says railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

The crash occurred at the Bahanaga Bazar station near Balasore, a city near the coast in the northeastern state of Odisha. The area is famous for its ancient temples and 17th-century British trading post.

In the state of Ostrogoth, there is a car that can take you to the nearest airport. In the days leading up to the crash, the day was usually the hottest of the year and the daily high temperature was around 100 degrees.

The rescue operation ended on Sunday morning. Dozens of trains have been canceled but crews were rushing to restore service after pushing off the derailed train cars. The railway minister expects service to resume on Wednesday.

India has one of the world’s biggest rail networks and is often referred to as the “lifeline” of its economy. Nearly all of India’s rail lines, 98 percent, were built from 1870 to 1930, according to a 2018 study published in The American Economic Review.

Two passenger trains collided around 7 p.m. local time Friday after one of them struck a stationary freight train at full speed and derailed in the Balasore District of Odisha State, according to an initial government report. At least 275 people were killed, according to the state government on Sunday, revising an earlier death toll of 288 after an official said some victims had been counted twice. There were more than 700 injuries among passengers and 56 suffered grievous injuries.

In India there were 475 derailments a year from 1980 to 2002. They have become much less common, with an average of just over 50 a year in the decade leading up to 2021, according to a paper by railway officials presented at the World Congress on Disaster Management.

The elimination of thousands of railway crossing was a key reason for improved safety of trains. Building underpasses and posting more signal conductors drastically reduced crashes, due to the relatively low-level engineering work of building them.

The train system, and especially train accidents, have long affected the fortunes of India’s politicians. The railway minister is one of the most sought after jobs because of it being influential in business and industry. A series of accidents forced him to resign as the designer of New Delhi’s world-class subway system.

India’s railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that he had ordered an investigation into the cause and that those affected by the crash would receive compensation.

The collision of a Coromandel Express passenger train with a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express train in the eastern state of West Bengal

One of the trains was a Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express train, according to South Eastern Railway. The Coromandel Express service has been known for connecting the biggest cities on India’s east coast at a relatively high speed. The other passenger train was a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express train, running from a commuter hub in Bangalore to Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal.

The first passenger train hit the freight train at full speed and then derailed, according to a preliminary assessment. Some of the cars were damaged when a second passenger train hit them. The probable cause is signal problems.

One of the country’s deadliest railway accidents in decades took place on Friday night in a district in eastern India, when two passenger trains derailed and hit each other.

The death toll in the state has been revised from over 300 to over 200 after a top state officer put it at over 300. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said the preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line, but the signal later changed, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore.

The collision flipped Coromandel Express’s coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side also to derail, she said.

The passenger trains, carrying 2,296 people, were not overspeeding, she said. The main line is clear for a passing train if the goods trains are parked on an adjacent loop line.

A signalling error caused a dead train crash: An Indian railway official sayss a case of a fatal train crash caused by sabotage

“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” Verma said. To a question whether the crash could be a case of sabotage, she said “nothing is ruled out.”

The interlocking system is used to prevent trains from moving in opposite directions. It also monitors the status of signals that tell drivers how close they are to a next train, how fast they can go and the presence of stationary trains on the track.

On Sunday, a few shattered carriages, mangled and overturned, were the only remnants of the tragedy. Railway workers toiled under the sun’s glare to lay down blocks of cement to fix the broken tracks. A crew with excavators removed mud and debris from the crash site.

Inder Mahato said he heard a bang when the Coromandel Express crashed, but could not recall the sequence of events. The impact caused Mahato, who was in the bathroom, to briefly lose consciousness.

Moments later when he opened his eyes, he saw through the door that was forced open people writhing in pain, many of them already dead. Others were frantically trying to get out from the twisted wreckage of his rail car.

Desperate relatives were struggling to identify their loved ones’ bodies because of the gruesome injuries. Few people were looking for their relatives in hospitals.

In the same hospital where Mahato was recovering from his injuries, Bulti Khatun strolled outside holding an identity card for her husband who was onboard the Coromandel Express and traveling to southern Chennai city.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/1180028370/an-indian-railway-official-says-a-signaling-error-caused-a-deadly-train-crash

The recovery of bodies after the SNR crash site in Araki-Suluguna-Tahriyan on Saturday evening

The efforts to recover bodies continued overnight after fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and heavy cranes were used to remove the engine from the rail car. The director- general of the fire and emergency services in the state said no one was found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday.

Modi talked to rescue officials after visiting the crash site on Saturday. He also visited a hospital to inquire about the injured, and spoke to some of them.

Modi told the reporters that he felt the pain of the crash victims. He said the government would do its utmost to help them and strictly punish anyone found responsible.