Deadly Train Collision in India Kills 288 and Injures Hundreds

A railway accident in the Indian state of Odisha, where three trains collided, killed at least 288 people, and about 850 more were taken to hospitals.

Source: The New York Times

Details: It is reported that the death toll could rise as rescuers continue to dismantle the piles of scrap metal that the collision turned into cars of two passenger and one freight trains.

According to the first report from the Government of India, writes NYT, around 19:00 local time on June 2, a Coromandel Express high-speed passenger train en route from Calcutta collided with a freight train that was idling at the station of the small town of Bahanaga.

After a collision with a freight train, the passenger train, which carried 1,257 passengers, derailed: 21 cars derailed, and 3 turned over onto other rails.

At the same time, a passenger train from Bengaluru to Calcutta Yesvantpur-Howrah Express with 1039 passengers was traveling in the opposite direction – on the track, on which 3 cars of the derailed train overturned. The second collision caused two carriages of the third train to derail.

Rajesh Kumar, senior deputy commercial director of India’s South Eastern Railway, said that the Coromandel Express train changed track, which led to the tragedy.

The reasons for the train’s course change are under investigation. The preliminary report shows that the accident occurred as a result of a signal failure, the newspaper writes.

It is noted that more than 200 ambulances and 100 additional doctors worked at the scene of the tragedy, in addition to 80 who arrived there immediately after the disaster.