India rail crash probe is focusing on manual bypass of track signal: railway sources
- Residents living near the crash site say the barrier at the railway crossing had been faulty for nearly three months and had been repaired frequently
- Initial investigation suggested the automatic electronic signalling system was ‘changed manually, for which the software has to be tampered with’
An official probe into India’s rail crash is focusing on suspected manual bypassing of an automated signalling system that guides train movement – an action investigators believe sent a packed express train into a stationary freight train, three Indian Railways sources told Reuters.
The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) investigators suspect the bypass was done by railway workers to get around signalling hurdles that arose from a malfunctioning barrier used to stop road traffic at a nearby railroad intersection, two of the three sources said.
The sources did not want to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The June 2 crash at Bahanaga Bazar station, in the Balasore district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed at least 288 people and injured more than 1,000. It was India’s worst rail crash in two decades.
Indian and international media have previously reported that a possible malfunction in the automated signalling system may have led to the crash.
However, details of the frequent malfunctions at the nearby railroad barrier and its possible connection to a manual bypass of the signalling system are reported by Reuters for the first time.
The CRS, which is India’s rail safety authority, did not respond to a request for comment.
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More than 200 dead, 850 hurt in India's Odisha rail crash