An electronic signal error, according to accident investigators, was the cause of the India train crash that killed more than 300 people. It is reported that one of the high-speed trains was on the incorrect track.
The train derailment in eastern India that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds more was caused by an error in the electronic signaling system, which caused a train to switch tracks incorrectly, India's railway minister said on Sunday.
''An investigation will reveal who did it and why,'' Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an interview with the New Delhi Television network.
Authorities provided this explanation as they labored to clear the mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed Friday night in the Balasore district of eastern Odisha state in one of the country's deadliest rail accidents in decades.
On The Wrong Track
The Press Trust of India news agency previously reported that preliminary investigations revealed that the Coromandel Express was given a signal to access the main track line, which was subsequently removed. According to PTI, the train entered another line, known as the loop line, and collided with a halted freight train.
On Saturday evening, fifteen bodies were recovered, and powerful cranes were used overnight to remove an engine that had settled on top of a train car. According to Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of fire and emergency services in Odisha, no bodies were found in the engine, and all work was concluded on Sunday morning.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on the modernization of the British colonial-era railroad network in India, which has become the most populous nation in the world with 1.42 billion inhabitants. Several hundred accidents occur annually on India's railways, the largest train network under one administration in the world, despite government efforts to improve safety.
Rescuers climbed atop derailed trains on Friday night and used cutting torches to smash open doors and windows in an effort to free people stranded inside derailed rail cars.
Saturday, Modi visited the crash site to assess the relief operation and speak with rescue officials. He also visited a hospital, where he questioned physicians about the care given to the injured and spoke with patients.
Modi told reporters he felt the suffering of the accident victims. He stated that the government would do everything possible to assist them and severely punish anyone discovered responsible.
Ten to twelve train coaches derailed, and some of the wreckage from the derailed coaches tumbled onto a nearby track. The detritus was struck by a second passenger train traveling in the opposite direction, causing up to three coaches of the second train to also derail, according to Amitabh Sharma, a spokesperson for the Railway Ministry.
In 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, resulting in the deaths of 358 individuals in one of India's worst train catastrophes. In 2016, 146 persons were killed when a passenger train derailed between Indore and Patna.
