Technical Glitch Or Human Error: Questions Raised After Odisha Crash

Odisha Train Accident: A passenger train, the Coromandel Shalimar Express, derailed after hitting a parked goods train and another train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast, crashed into the derailed coaches.

After a crash involving three trains killed more than 230 people in Odisha last evening, questions are being raised about possible operational lapses that could have contributed to the tragedy.  

Between 6.50 pm and 7.10 pm on Friday, two collisions took place at Odisha's Balasore between three trains, leaving a mass of wrecked compartments and coaches on top of one another.  

A passenger train, the Coromandel Shalimar Express, derailed after hitting a parked goods train and another train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast, crashed into the derailed coaches.

The impact was so hard that coaches were lifted high into the air before they smashed onto the tracks. One coach was tossed on its roof. Seventeen coaches of the two trains were severely damaged.