2023-06-04 14:59:14
India’s Minister of Railway Transport said on Sunday (4) that the cause and those responsible for the biggest railway catastrophe in the country in recent decades had been identified, mentioning the electronic signaling system, but without revealing other details. The accident, which happened on Friday (2) near the city of Balasore, in the state of Odisha (east of the country), caused at least 288 deaths and left more than 900 injured.
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Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the ANI news agency that it was not yet “appropriate” to reveal more details before the final investigation report was drawn up. He stated that “a change that occurred during the electronic interlock” caused the accident, using a technical term that refers to a complex signaling system designed to prevent the collision of trains, with the control of the circulation of the compositions. “We will find out who did this and how it happened after proper investigation,” he added.
The newspaper The Times of Indiawhich cites a preliminary investigation, said on Sunday that “human error” may have caused one of the worst rail accidents in the history of the country.
The “Coromandal Express”, traveling between Kolkata and Chennai, was given the green light to run on the main road, but was diverted due to human error to a track where a freight train was parked, according to the newspaper. The passenger train collided with the freight train at a speed of 130 km/h. Three carriages overturned on the attached track, which hit the tail end of an express passenger train traveling from Bangalore to Kolkata. This second collision was the one that caused more victims, according to the newspaper The Times of India.
School turns morgue
A high school close to the scene of the tragedy was transformed into an improvised mortuary, where authorities accompany families to try to identify the fatal victims. Arvind Agarwal, who runs the makeshift mortuary, said the corpses were “almost unrecognizable” after more than 24 hours in scorching heat. He informed the families that DNA tests will be needed to identify the victims.
The tragedy happened near Balasore, a city in the state of Odisha, almost 200 kilometers from the regional capital Bhubaneswar.
Anubhav Das, who was in the last carriage of the second composition, stated that he heard “horrible shrill sounds coming from afar”. After the accident, he claimed to have observed “scenes filled with blood, mutilated bodies and a man with an amputated arm being desperately helped by his injured son”.
Redemption completed
The balance of the tragedy could rise to 380 dead, according to the director of the fire department of Odisha, Sudhanshu Sarangi.
“No one responsible for the accident will be immune”, promised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went to the scene of the tragedy and visited the wounded in the hospital. “I pray that we can get through this sad moment as soon as possible,” he told public channel Doordarshan.
On Saturday night, almost 24 hours after the accident, rescue operations were completed after inspection of all destroyed train cars. “All the bodies and injured passengers have been removed from the crash site,” a source from Balasore’s emergency coordination cell told AFP.
All hospitals between the crash site and Bhubaneswar have received victims of the accident, officials said. Almost 200 ambulances and buses were mobilized to transport the wounded.
After the collision, “people were screaming, asking for help,” said Arjun Das, a survivor of the crash. “There were wounded everywhere, inside the wagons, on the tracks. I want to forget the scenes I saw”, he added.
“Death and Suffering”
AFP correspondents observed carriages completely overturned and emergency teams working around the clock to rescue survivors. Many dead bodies, covered in sheets, lay beside the tracks.
Hiranmay Rath, a student who lives near the crash site, rushed to help. In a few hours, he claimed to have seen more “death and suffering” than he could have imagined.
Pope Francis declared himself “deeply saddened” by the tragedy and expressed condolences. The pontiff said he is praying for the victims.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed “sincere condolences”.
This is the worst rail accident in India since 1995, when a collision between two express trains near Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, killed more than 300 people.
The deadliest accident in the history of India happened on June 6, 1981 in the state of Bihar (east), when seven carriages of a train fell from a bridge into the Bagmati River, a tragedy that caused between 800 and 1,000 deaths.
With information from AFP
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