The death toll from a massive train crash has risen to at least 288 people, with 900 more injured, as officials have halted the search for survivors.
The tragic event occurred on June 2 in India and is seen as the most destructive train accident in the country in over 20 years.
Emergency workers made strenuous attempts to work their way through the contorted wreckage of the trains, employing cutting torches to force open doors and windows in the hope of discovering any signs of life.
The crash involved two moving passenger trains and a stationary freight train in Odisha, an eastern state of India. A considerable number of bodies were found near the train tracks and were covered with white sheets. Both local people and professional rescuers spent exhaustive hours trying to rescue those trapped in the twisted rail cars.
The rescue operation was a multi-agency effort, involving the army, air force helicopters, fire department teams, police, and the National Disaster Response Force. Ultimately, however, the operation had to be called off. Attention then turned to the removal of debris in an effort to get the rail lines operational again.
The collision happened when the Coromandel Express, a high-speed train not due to stop at the Bahanaga Bazar station, plowed into a stationary freight train. This caused the passenger train to derail, with twenty-one coaches leaving the tracks and three ending up on another track. At the same time, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Express, traveling from the opposite direction, collided with the dislocated coaches, resulting in two more coaches derailing.
Investigations so far have suggested that a failure in the electronic signaling system was likely the cause of the crash. It remains to be determined whether this failure was human or technical in nature. Despite the general reliability of this system, the potential for errors exists. Why the freight train was stationary and why the Coromandel Express was not given advance warning of its presence are still unexplained.
This tragic accident comes at a time when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving to modernize the railway network. The event has raised serious questions about the safety of the system and the need for renewal of the aging infrastructure. The Indian railway network, the largest globally run by one entity, continues to witness frequent accidents largely due to its decaying infrastructure.
