India, on June 3, 2023 from the city of Shalimar station the passenger train Coromandel Express 12841, headed for Chennai. But at the height of the Bahangaga Bazar railway station, the train will derail, entering collision With two other trains passing through the station, causing the death of 296 people and an exorbitant number of injured: about 1,175. The tragedy, known as Railway accident of the Orissawas the third worst rail discharge that happened in India.
The derailment and collision with the other two trains
The Coromandel Express 12841, that June 3, 2023, starts from the Shalimar station, in Western Bengal, with direction Chennai, in Tamil Nadu. At 19:20, in the Bahanga station, in the Orissa district, Coromandel Deraglia and is overwhelmed by a second train, which traveled the route between Yeswanthpur, near Bangalore, and Howrah, near Calcutta. In the violent impact Between the two convoys, which traveled at the speed of 128 km/h, 22 carriages of the Coromandel Express will be thrown against the Bengaluru-Howrah Express tail.
Fortunately, the least number of victims will be recorded on the latter: to be affected and to derail will be two unreserved wagons and the brake van, while the remaining 20 carriages with passengers will be able to continue the journey to the destination station. But the disaster assumes even more disastrous proportions, since, during the derailmentthe Coromandel Express will clash with a third train, which was stationed on the tracks.
The causes of the derailment of the Coromandel Express and the investigations
The investigations On what the tragedy caused, in which 296 people died, they were conducted by the Kharagpur railway division, which established some fundamental factors that occurred on the accident site, which inevitably led to the clash.
The trigger that caused the accident was found in a wrong alert signal. Initially, the Coromandel Express was given the signal to proceed on the main line, but later, for reasons still unknown today, the signal was changed and the train was ordered to proceed along a ring line adjacent to the main line.
On this ring he stopped the freight trainthat the Coromandel hit, climbing over and derailing the 22 wagons, three of which affected the two tail carriages of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express, which was proceeding in the opposite direction, at a speed of 126 km/h. On June 4, two days after the collision, the minister of the railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that the accident caused a “change in electronic interbloke”, or an error in the electronic system.
The consequences of the accident
Following the disaster that happened in the Orissa, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of one of the most serious rail disasters ever happened in India, together with several world leaders, who sent Condolence messages For the serious accident that hit the Indian population.
The railway tragedy of the Orissa was also an opportunity to highlight the serious conditions in which the Indian railwayswhich deeply worried most of the Indian politicians, especially the opposition. Members of the Indian National Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India in fact asked for Vaishnaw’s resignation, underlining that in the last 6 months other trains managed to avoid the accidents similar to that of the Orissa for a whisker, caused by wrong reports.
It was also found that on the track in which the disaster took place had not yet been installed a anti –which indignant Indian public opinion, raising doubts about the safety of the railway system and the frequent derailments, symptom of the deficiency of technical staff and the failure to use the railways, the funds allocated to implement the safety
railway. A report drawn up by the Indian revision authority of the Nel 2022 accounts, reported that in the past 4 years the funds were used improperly by other departments, such as that of human resources.