MSN
An error in India’s electronic signaling system was blamed Sunday for sending a passenger train jammed with workers and students into a head-on crash with a freight train, triggering one of the world’s deadliest train crashes in decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised the “harshest punishment” for anyone found responsible in Friday’s wreck.
Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said Sunday that a preliminary investigation revealed the tragedy in the eastern India state of Odisha began when a signal was initially given to the high-speed express train to run on the main track line. But the signal changed, sending the Coromandel Express into an adjacent loop line where it slammed into a freight train loaded with iron ore, she said.
“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” Verma said. To a question of whether the crash could be a case of sabotage, she said “nothing is ruled out.” She also said the passenger trains were not speeding.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters the crash was caused by “a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine” and he said the “criminals” who were responsible have been identified, The Times of India reported.
Authorities also revised the death toll to 275, down slightly from more than 300 announced after the wreck…
