A railway official has revealed that the recent train derailment in eastern India, which resulted in the deaths of at least 288 people and left over 800 injured, was caused by an error in the electronic signalling system. The system sent the trains onto the wrong tracks. The exact sequence of events leading to the disaster in Odisha state’s Balasore district on Friday is still unclear. Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, stated that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track, but it later changed, causing the train to enter an adjacent loop line where it collided with a freight train carrying iron ore. The collision caused the Coromandel Express’s coaches to flip onto another track, leading to the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express from the opposite side to slam into the wreckage and also derail. Sinha confirmed that the passenger trains were not speeding and that the root cause of the crash was related to an error in the electronic signalling system. She added that a detailed investigation will reveal whether the error was human or technical.
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