TRAIN TRAGEDY TOLL HITS 294

Hospitals overrun; rescue operation in progress; signal error for a few seconds may be the cause

- Debabrata Mohanty

BAHANAGA BAZAR (BALASORE): The toll from a grim three-train crash in Odisha’s Balasore district climbed to 294 on Saturday as a clutch of top politicians visited the site and rescuers raced against time to pull survivors out of crumpled compartments inwhatwas India’sworst train accident in nearly three decades.

The Chennai-bound Coro mandel Express rammed into a goods train just beyond Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district around 6.56pm on Friday, the impact of the collision flinging several compartments into the adjacent trackwhere the Howrah-bound Yesvantpur Express slammed into them four minutes later.

The death toll steadily rose through the night as disaster relief personnel climbedover the mangled wreckage strewn across three sets of railway tracks, cutting throughdamaged doors and grills to pull people trappedunderheaps ofmetal. At last count, thenumber of injured people stood at 1,100, saidOdisha chief secretary Pradip Jena. “Asmany as 1,175 peoplewere admitted at various hospitals, including private ones, ofwhom 793 have been released and 382 were undergoing treatment,” said Jena. All except two patients are stable, he added. Prime Minister Narendra

Modi, Union railway minister ministers of Odisha and West Bengal, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee, respectively, visited the accident site andmet the survivors, even as a political controversy broke out overwho should take responsibility for the crash, the worst suffered by the public transporter since 1995. “It is a painful incident,”Modi said. “Those found guiltywill be punished stringently.” The accident on the arterial