Global Courant
An Indian railway official said a fault in the electronic signaling system is believed to have caused a passenger train to collide with a freight train and derail a second passenger train.
The incidents caused the death of 275 people and the injury of 900 others.
The incident took place in the state of Odisha and is considered one of the country’s deadliest rail disasters in decades. Initially, the authorities said that the number of victims was over 300 people, but after a review, the figure turned out to be lower.
Indira official Jaya Verma Sinha said a detailed investigation will be done to understand whether the error was human or technical. She said the two trains with 2,296 passengers on board were traveling at normal speed.
The event comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focused on modernizing the British colonial-era railway network. Despite the government’s efforts to improve safety, several hundred railway accidents occur in India every year./ VOA
Global Courantl
