Odisha tragedy: How the 3 trains collided into each other

June 3, 2023 2:07 pm

NEW DELHI: A series of disasterous events unfolded in Odisha’s Balasore on Friday evening when three trains got involved in one of India’s deadliest railway tragedies in history.

In the first few hours after the accident, there was some confusion about how the accident had occured exactly and which train got derailed first.

Initial reports after the accident suggested that only one train, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, got derailed about 300 metres from the Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha. Later, reports suggested that it had rammed into the derailed coaches of another goods train, which caused the crash. Finally, it emerged that another train, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express (Yesvantpur Express), was also involved in the crash, making it a triple-train collision.

However, earlier today, officials gave an exact sequence of the events that led to the deadly train crash, which killed over 260 people and injured nearly 900.

Here’s how the triple-train crash unfolded …

* At 6.58pm, the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express mistakenly entered the loopline instead of continuing on the mainline towards Chennai.

* Officials said that this was likely due to human error in signalling as Coromandel Express wasn’t supposed to stop. Hence, it was travelling at a full speed of 130km/hour.

* The Coromandel Express then crashed into a stationary freight train that was on the loopline at the Bahanaga Bazar station.

* The impact caused the engine of the Coromandel Express train to mount on top of the freight train, causing the derailment of its 22 compartments.

* Following the first derailment, three coaches of the Coromandal Express veered off onto a parallel line and collided with the rear two coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah train which was coming through from the opposite side.

* The Bengaluru-Howrah train had almost crossed the Coromandel. Unfortunately, the last two coaches were still crossing the parallel track when the derailed coaches of the Coromandel Express rammed into them.

* The five coaches — three from the Coromandel Express and two from the Bengaluru-Howrah Express — that collided into each other were among the worst hit and saw the maximum casualties.

* There were about 1,257 reserved passengers onboard Coromandel Express and 1,039 reserved passengers onboard the Bengaluru-Howrah train.