Train that crashed into another in India was traveling 3 times too fast, officials say

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Driver error may have caused Indian train crash

CALCUTTA, India — A train that slammed into another in an eastern Indian station was traveling three times faster than it should have been and ignored signals to stop, railway officials said Tuesday, suggesting that driver error was behind the crash that killed 63 people.

In the early hours of Monday, the Uttarbanga Express hit a passenger train that was about to pull out of Sainthia station, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Calcutta. The force of the crash was so intense that the roof of one car was thrust onto an overpass above the tracks.

Officials launched an investigation Tuesday into the crash, that also injured scores of travelers. Initial findings have already shown that the Uttarbanga was traveling at 55 miles per hour (90 kilometers per hour) — three times the speed it should have been — even though it was expected to stop at Sainthia station, according to Vivek Sahai, a senior railway official.

The signal operator at the Sainthia station told reporters that the Uttarbanga sped toward the station despite a red signal, indicating that it should slow down and stop. At the time, the Vananchal Express was just beginning to leave the station.

Mator Let, the signal operator, said that he tried to communicate with the driver, but the train did not stop. The driver was among those killed in the crash.

Accidents are relatively common on India’s sprawling rail network, which is one of the world’s largest but lacks modern signaling and communication systems. Most crashes are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

It was the second major train crash in West Bengal state in two months. On May 28, a passenger train derailed and was hit by a cargo train, killing 145 people. Authorities blamed sabotage by Maoist rebels for that crash.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee initially raised the possibility that Monday’s crash was another case of sabotage, but there was no immediate indication that rebels were to blame.

A handful of accidents in north India in January killed at least a dozen people and were blamed on heavy winter fog that impaired visibility. Other fatal crashes happened when rickety rail bridges give way.