Eastern India train crash claims 15 lives and injures numerous others

In the Indian state of West Bengal, a freight train collided with the rear of a stopped passenger train on Monday, killing at least 15 people and injuring several more, according to police. Railway authorities attributed the disaster to driver error.

Images of the pile-up, including one carriage that was left virtually vertical after the disaster and containers from the goods train scattered around, were shown by the media. This catastrophe occurred just over a year after a signaling malfunction resulted in one of the worst rail crashes in India.

According to Abhishek Roy, a top police official in the accident site district of Darjeeling in the eastern state, fifteen remains were extracted from the damaged carriages, as reported by Reuters.

According to Roy, there were fifty-four injuries and rescue personnel from the police and national disaster response force were clearing debris from the overturned carriages.

Three passenger train carriages were forced off the tracks when the freight train collided with the Kanchanjunga Express, which was traveling from the northeastern state of Tripura to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.

At that moment, the number of persons on board was not immediately apparent.

One passenger train carriage was lifted by the force of the crash and lodged on the freight train’s roof. To release it, rescuers utilized iron rods and ropes.

According to Jaya Varma Sinha, the director of the railway board that oversees the nationwide network, among the deceased were the guard on the passenger train and the driver of the freight train.

According to Sinha, the freight train driver ignored a signal, which led to the tragedy.

Authorities are attempting to resume traffic once the rescue operation was over, according to Sinha, and the damage was not as bad as first thought.

“The guard’s compartment in the passenger train was badly damaged,” she stated. “There were two parcel vans attached ahead of it which reduced the extent of damage to passengers.”

Upon investigating after hearing a loud crash, several nearby residents told the ANI news agency—in which Reuters has a minority stake—that they had witnessed the pile-up.

In addition to expressing sympathy for the deaths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was her route to the scene.

A year ago, a signal failure in the neighboring state of Odisha resulted in the deadliest rail accident to occur in India in almost 20 years, killing roughly 288 people.
The track record of Modi’s government on train safety was criticized by opposition parties.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party and Modi’s major opponent, wrote on X that “the increase in railway accidents in the last 10 years is a direct result of the mismanagement and negligence of the Modi government, which results in loss of lives and property of passengers on a daily basis.”