2023-06-05 06:10:09
【2023. 6. 05 India】
Investigation of 275 dead train derailments in India: Signal system error, remains unclaimed
“India’s worst railway accident in the 21st century so far, three trains collided and 275 died…” A major accident involving three trains collided in India on June 2, killing 275 people and injuring more than 1,000 people. The rescue operation came to an end on the 3rd, and the authorities began to clean up the wreckage and prepare to restart traffic operations. However, a large number of relatives of passengers still poured into the Odisha province (Odisha) where the incident occurred to find their missing family members; The remains of 187 victims remain unclaimed. The accident occurred on the evening of the 2nd when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train and derailed, and the derailed carriage collided with another train coming from the opposite direction on the adjacent track. In the most serious railway accident, the cause of the collision is still under investigation. There was a problem with the signal of the preliminary direction-locking electronic track system, but the cause of the problem has not yet been clarified.
The accident occurred at around 18:55 on the evening of June 2. The specific location was near Bahanaga Bazar Station in Odisha Province (about 270 kilometers south of Kolkata, the eastern metropolis). Three trains were involved, starting from West Bengal, to the southern citySeinaThe “Coromandel Express” (Coromandel Express) passenger train; fromBangaloreleave forHowrahThe “Howrah Superfast Express” (Howrah Superfast Express) passenger train; and a freight train loaded with iron ore that stops on the circular track of Bahanaga Bazar Station.
Jaya Verma Sinha, a member of the Indian Railways Commission, explained the incident in detail at a press conference on June 4. She said that the Coromandel Express left the main track when it approached the Bahanaga Bazar station and entered the ring for the train to park. As a result, it hit a freight train parked here at a speed of 128 kilometers per hour. The force of the impact caused the engine and the first four to five carriages of the Coromandel Express to overturn and derail, and the derailed carriage hit the last two carriages of the Howrah Express train coming from the opposite direction, causing the Howrah Express to also derail ——The two passenger trains involved in the accident carried a total of about 2,200 passengers. In the end, a total of 23 carriages derailed in the collision, killing at least 275 people and injuring 1,175.
Sinha pointed out that the Coromandel Express should have continued to run on the main track, staggered with the Howrah Express on the next track, but the former had mistakenly entered the side track-if the railway’s electronic chain management system is functioning normally, the Coromandel The Deutsche Bahn should not have entered the side track at all, so the current main focus of the investigation is on the track management system. She added: “Preliminary investigations have shown that the electronic interlocking system is not malfunctioning, but signal interference has occurred”, and the cause of the interference may be human-made. , emergencies, weather, machine wear, or improper maintenance, etc., still need to be clarified in detail.
Among the railway signals, the electronic interlocking system will control the route of each train running in the set area, indicate with light signals, coordinate the train to enter the empty track at the intersection of two tracks, or indicate that two trains traveling in the opposite direction should Continue straight or switch to a new track to keep the train safely on track – however, in the incident in Odisha, the system incorrectly signaled the Coromandel Express to “enter the loop track” .
Sinha also said that she had spoken to the Coromandel Express driver who survived the injury. The driver said that before the accident, he was driving according to the speed limit (130 km/h) and did not skip any signals; the driver The testimony will be compared with the records of the track system, but Sinha also pointed out that even if the system operates normally in 99.9% of cases, there is always a 0.1% possibility of error in various machine systems.She did not disclose the name of the manufacturer of the orbital electronics system or the age of the system, butArchyde.comIt was noted that almost the entire Indian railway network uses the system.
Dozens of trains were urgently canceled due to the accident, but the rescue operation of the train accident ended on June 3. Relevant personnel began to clean up the accident scene and cleared the wreckage of the derailed train off the track, and then rushed to restore the normal operation of the track. Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said train services were expected to resume no later than June 7. However, the “BBC” reported that although Indian officials stated that “all the trapped and injured people at the scene have been rescued”, as of the morning of June 4, there were still survivors miraculously rescued from the twisted carriage and sent to the hospital.
On the other hand, local officials and doctors said that due to the suspension of train traffic, it was still difficult for the families of countless victims to reach Odisha province on June 4, two days after the incident, and many remains are still unclaimed.And many family members who have managed to reach the accident site by road or other means are still between the hospital and the morgue in Orissa Province, struggling to find the lost relatives who are still alive or dead——Odisha Provincial Official Jena (Pradeep Jena) )Towards《BBC》Pointing out that as of June 4, at least 187 remains were still unidentified. The authorities uploaded photos of the victims on the government website and expected to conduct DNA comparisons to test the identity of the deceased if necessary.
A mother, Lilavati Devi, who spent 30 hours coming to Odisha province from the northeastern province of Bihar (Bihar), anxiously told the “BBC” that she had been searching but could not find the missing 22 His son Raja Sahani, 18, left his hometown with other relatives to do odd jobs in Bangalore to earn money, but when he changed trains in Howrah, he got on the death train. Devi said that after receiving the news of the accident, the family members had already spent 45,000 rupees (approximately NT$16,750) to rent a car to Odisha province in order to find the missing Raja – this cost far exceeded theirs family’s affordability, but so far, although eight other relatives have been found, there is no news of Raja. Devi said:
“I’ve searched all the hospitals and mortuaries here and I can’t find him. We’ve asked the mortuary over and over to show us pictures of all the remains, but he’s not there…I pray we find him somewhere , whatever the circumstances.”
Indian Prime Minister Modi (Narendra Modi) inspected the scene of the accident in Odisha province on the 3rd and ordered that anyone who is confirmed to be responsible for the cause of the accident will be “severely punished”; he also went to the hospital to visit the injured and Promises that the government will “spare no effort to provide treatment”.
India has one of the largest railway systems in the world, with more than 12,000 trains running daily and tens of millions of passengers. However, the most serious train accident since the 21st century has brought international attention to the safety of Indian railways again—— In fact, train derailment accidents occurred frequently in India in the past. From the 1980s to 2000, there were an average of 475 accidents per year; He said at the World Disaster Management Conference that India’s railway safety situation has improved, but according to data presented by the railways, there will still be an average of more than 50 derailment accidents per year between 2011 and 2021.
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