Tragic Train Collision in India Leaves Over 200 Dead and 900 Injured
Rescuers work at the site of passenger trains that derailed in Balasore district, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, Friday, June 2, 2023. Two passenger trains derailed in India, killing at least 13 people and trapping hundreds of others inside more than a dozen damaged coaches, officials said. About 400 people were injured and taken to hospitals, and the cause of the accident was under investigation, officials said. (Press Trust of India via AP)
A horrific crash involving three trains occurred late on Friday in the Odisha state of eastern India, leaving at least 207 people dead, more than 900 others injured, and many more possibly trapped.
“We are only working (on) sending additional doctors, ambulances, buses, so all those things we are doing so we have not thought of asking what happened, how it happened,” said Pradeep Jena, the senior official in the state of Odisha.
According to Amitabh Sharma, a spokeswoman for the railways ministry, two passenger trains and a cargo train had collided at the city of Balasore, in the state of Odisha. The senior official said that around 500 police officers and rescuers arrived in 75 ambulances and buses to the crash site.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “distressed by the train accident,” adding that he had spoken to railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take “stock of the situation.”
The Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology of India has declared that the families of those who died on Friday will get $12,136, with smaller sums being made available to those who were hurt in the collision.
India’s Rail Safety Record
Several hundred incidents happen annually on India’s railroads, the world’s largest train network with a single administration, despite government attempts to increase rail safety. The deadliest railway catastrophe in Indian history occurred in August 1995 when two trains crashed close to New Delhi, killing 358 people.
Human error and out-of-date signaling equipment are considered the main causes of railway accidents.
It is reported that every day, 14,000 trains carrying more than 12 million passengers traverse India’s 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
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