A train crash in eastern India on Friday was the country’s worst rail disaster in two decades, killing more than 270 people and raising questions about rail safety in a country that has recently invested heavily in the system, which millions of people live in daily trust years after a long history of fatal accidents.
At least 275 people have been confirmed dead
According to an initial government report, around 7pm local time on Friday, two passenger trains collided after one of them crashed into a parked freight train at full speed in Balasore district, Odisha state, and derailed. At least 275 people have died, the state government announced on Sunday. The previous death toll stood at 288 after an official said some victims had been double counted. More than 1,100 passengers were injured.
According to a preliminary assessment, authorities say the disaster began when the first of two passenger trains traveling at full speed crashed into the stationary freight train and then derailed. A second passenger train traveling in the opposite direction collided with some of the carriages that had slipped. The officials see signal problems as the probable cause.
According to the railway officials, there were a total of more than 2,200 passengers on the passenger trains, and at least 23 wagons derailed. The force of the impact damaged the cars so badly that rescue workers used cutters to get to the victims.
One of the trains was a Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express train, according to the South Eastern Railway. The Coromandel Express service connects the largest cities on the east coast of India at relatively high speeds. The other passenger train was a Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express, which ran from a commuter hub in the southern city of Bengaluru to Kolkata, the capital of northeastern West Bengal state.
Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he had ordered an investigation into the cause of the accident and those involved they would receive compensation.
The train derailed near Balasore
The accident happened at the Bahanaga Bazar station near Balasore, a town near the coast in the northeastern state of Odisha. The area is known for its ancient temples and history as a 17th-century British trading post.
Balasore is several hours drive from the nearest airport in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha. The month of May is usually the hottest time of the year and daytime temperatures reached 37.7 degrees Celsius in the days leading up to the accident.
The rescue operation ended on Saturday. Dozens of trains were disrupted, but train crews struggled to restore service after pushing the cars involved in the accident off the tracks. Vaishnaw said he expects worship to resume no later than Wednesday. But the delays meant victims’ families were still struggling to reach the crash site on Sunday, and many bodies have still not been collected, according to local officials and doctors.
Derailments have become rarer
Often cited as vital to India’s economy, the country’s extensive rail network is one of the largest in the world. It is vital to life and livelihood, especially in the most rural regions of the country. Almost all of India’s railways, 98 percent, were built between 1870 and 1930, according to a 2018 study published in the American Economic Review.
The deadliest accident in the country’s railroad history is believed to have occurred in 1981 when a passenger train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state. Its wagons sank in the Bagmati River, killing about 750 passengers. Many bodies were never recovered.
Derailments used to be common in India, averaging 475 per year from 1980 to around the turn of the century. They have become much rarer, averaging just over 50 a year over the decade to 2021, according to a paper by railroad officials presented at the World Congress on Disaster Management.
However, fatal accidents kept occurring. In 2016, 14 train carriages derailed in northeastern India in the middle of the night, killing more than 140 passengers and injuring 200 others. Authorities at the time said a “break” in the tracks could be to blame. In 2017, a nighttime derailment in southern India killed at least 36 passengers and injured another 40.
Friday’s accident was the deadliest since at least one accident in 1995 about 200 kilometers from Delhi that killed more than 350 people.
Modi has made improving public transport a priority
One of the main reasons for improving train safety was the elimination of thousands of unattended level crossings, which the Modi government said was achieved in 2019. The relatively small amount of engineering work to build underpasses and install additional signaling devices also led to a drastic reduction in accidents.
Modi has made it a priority to improve infrastructure, especially transportation systems, across the country. In recent years, the railways, one of the most visible projects for the common man, have attracted attention through a series of high-tech initiatives. Modi has commissioned medium-distance electric trains and is building a Japanese-style “bullet train” corridor on the west coast, which will link Mumbai with Ahmedabad.
But instead of inaugurating a new train as planned, Modi visited the scene of the train accident on Saturday.
The train system, and train accidents in particular, have long influenced the fortunes of Indian politicians. The cabinet post of Minister of Railways is one of the most sought-after posts due to its high standing and influence in business and industry. Suresh Prabhu, who is credited with designing New Delhi’s world-class metro system, was forced to resign in September 2017 after a series of accidents.
A few hours after Friday’s disaster, some opposition politicians were already calling for Vaishnaw’s resignation.
Mujib Mashal contributed to this report.
Victoria Kim is a Seoul correspondent focused on live reporting. He joined the Times in 2022. @vicjkim
Erin Mendell, editor of the live news team in Seoul, has been editing and reporting from Asia since 2016. She joined The Times in 2022 after working at the Wall Street Journal for more than a decade, most recently in Hong Kong. @airhen
Isabella Kwai is a live news reporter at the London Correspondent. She joined The Times in 2017 as Australia correspondent.