A cable labeling error in charge of controlling the automatic signaling system of the tracks caused the worst train accident of the 21st century in Indiawhich last month resulted in almost 290 deaths and a thousand wounded.
This negligence, committed in 2015 by personnel from the signaling and telecommunications department, was not corrected in subsequent years and led to confusion in the maintenance work that was being carried out on the road hours before the accident, according to the report on the accident. accident of the Railway Safety Commission (CRS), which is reported by the Indian Express newspaper.
As a result, the first of the passenger trains involved in the accident agreed to a track occupied by a train of goods parked with the one that collided and derailed. At that moment, another passenger railway passing through the station collided with both.
The incident took place on June 2 in the eastern state of Odisha and claimed the lives of some 290 people in addition to leaving more than a thousand injuredmaking it India’s worst rail accident of the 21st century.
The error in the wiring showed workers at the nearby Bahanaga Bazar station that the first passenger train would continue to run on a vacated track, instead of switching to the one occupied by the freight railway.
The report highlighted the chain of errors that led to this outcome, from the initial failure in 2015 to subsequent revision work that did not correct it, with special emphasis on 2018, when technicians changed the system without realizing the mistake.
In this regard, the report found that this same error occurred two weeks before the accident on another railway section in India, although in this case it did manage to be corrected on time.
The Indian railway network has undergone great modernization in recent years, with the inauguration of new stations, semi-high-speed trains and the development of new technology to try to reduce its high accident rate.
In 2021 alone, India recorded 17,993 railway accidents that caused the death of 16,431 people and injured 1,852, according to the latest report from the National Office of Criminal Records.
With a route of 68,000 kilometers, the fourth in length in the world, behind the United States, Russia and China, it has some 21,650 trains and 7,349 stations throughout the country, and transports some 23 million passengers daily.
