What we know about train crash in India that killed nearly 300 people
Two passenger trains crashed into each other in India on Friday, killing at least 275 people and injuring hundreds of others, according to reports. It marks the country’s worst rail crash in 20 years, and government officials have vowed to hold someone accountable for the accident.
Rescue efforts continue as crews try to retrieve bodies from the mangled train cars, and while rescue crews work, officials believe the death toll will likely rise, according to media reports.
What happened in India’s train crash?
The crash involved three trains total — two passenger trains and one freight train.
On Friday, a high-speed train was moving from Kolkata to Chennai when it was “diverted onto a loop line and slammed into a heavy goods train idled at Bahanaga Bazar railway station,” CNN reported.
The crash “flipped the Coromandel Express coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side to derail,” CBS News reported.
The passenger trains were carrying a reported total of 2,296 people and were not traveling over the speed limit at the time of the collision, per CBS News.
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According to Reuters, one early report identifies “that the accident was the result of signal failure.”
“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,” K.S. Anand, chief public relations officer of the South Eastern Railway, told Reuters.
What do Indian government officials say?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site and expressed pain for those suffering from the crash or who lost relatives.
“We can’t bring back those we have lost but the government is with them (families) in their grief. This incident is very serious for the government. … Whoever is found guilty will be punished severely,” Modi said, per CNN.
On Sunday, India’s railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government was investigating the incident and that the report would reveal “who was responsible for that mistake,” per CNN.
India has invested more heavily in its train network, which is one of the most intricate and expansive in the world, yet railway officials claim the investments have not focused on safety enough, The New York Times reported.
“Despite India’s trumpeting that it has reduced the frequency of mass-casualty rail accidents in recent years, the work of assuring safety on the country’s vast railway network remains deeply underfunded,” per the Times.
