More than 280 people reportedly died and more than a thousand passengers were injured in a fatal train accident in Odisha, India. Indian Railway Minister, Ashwini Viashnaw, stated that the cause of the accident was the occurrence of electronic signal interference that made the car go to the wrong track.
Ashwini says a full investigation is still underway but the root cause has been identified. Vaishnaw has not confirmed whether the signal disruption was due to human error or a technical issue.
"Who did it and for what reason will come out of the investigation," he added. His ministry has also requested a criminal investigation into the incident, as quoted by us from the Guardian, Monday (5/6/2023).
The electronic signaling system on the train is a safety mechanism designed to make all the cars move safely. The system also monitors the status of signals that tell drivers how close they are to the next car, how fast the car can go and the presence of stationary or parked cars in the crossing.
In this incident, a passenger car collided with a goods car that was stationary and skidded, after the car was wrongly directed to the circular lane on the side of the main lane. The carriage that fell then hit the rear carriage of the second passenger car that was passing from the opposite direction, causing a great fatal accident.
Jaya Verma Sinha of the Indian Railways Council said the two passenger trains approached the Balasore district station with a green signal indicating safe conditions, at speeds below 130 kilometers per hour.
According to him, the two passenger cars should have passed each other on the main lane but the Coromandel Express instead hit a freight car loaded with iron ore on the ring lane. This passenger car bears the full impact of the collision and the freight car does not skid or even move.
Verma said the investigation showed some kind of signal interference from a system failure. "Whether it's manual, whether it's incidental, whether it's weather-related, whether it's due to wear and tear, whether it's maintenance failure, all that will come out after the investigation," he added.