BALASORE, India (AP) — After salvage work was completed, authorities began cleaning up the mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades, officials said Sunday. .
Investigators are looking into possible causes of Friday night’s crash in Balasore district in eastern Odisha state, including whether human error or signal failure played a role.
Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and efforts continued overnight as heavy cranes were used to remove an engine that had fitted to the top of a train carriage. No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, chief executive of Odisha Fire and Emergency Services.
The accident came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on upgrading the British colonial-era rail network in India, which has become the world’s most populous country with 1.42 billion people. residents. Despite the government’s efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on Indian Railways, the largest railway network under one management in the world.
Preliminary investigations revealed that a signal had been given to the Coromandel Express to enter the mainline, but the signal was later removed. The train entered another line, known as the loop line, and crashed into a freight train parked there, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Asked about the cause of the crash and preliminary findings, India’s Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: “Let the investigation report come out. It will not be appropriate to comment.”
Chaotic scenes erupted on Friday night as rescuers climbed to the top of wrecked trains to open doors and windows with cutting torches in an attempt to rescue those trapped inside the carriages.
Modi traveled to the crash site on Saturday to review the relief effort and speak to rescue officials. He also visited a hospital where he asked doctors about the treatment given to the injured and spoke to some of them.
Modi told reporters he felt the pain of those who suffered from the accident. He said the government would do everything possible to help them and severely punish anyone found responsible.
Ten to 12 cars from a train derailed and debris from some of the mangled cars fell onto a nearby track. The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, causing up to three cars on the second train to derail, said Amitabh Sharma, spokesman for the Ministry of Railways.
In 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in one of India’s worst rail accidents. In 2016, a passenger train skidded between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.
Most train accidents in India are attributed to human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
___
Sharma reported from New Delhi.