Rail crash that killed 14 caused by train drivers watching cricket
The drivers of an Indian passenger train that crashed into another locomotive, killing 14 people and leaving more than 50 injured, were distracted because they were watching a cricket match, an investigation has found.
The Visakhapatnam to Rayagada service rammed and derailed two carriages of the Visakhapatnam to Palasa train in Andhra Pradesh state in October last year.
Both the driver and his assistant were killed.
“The recent case in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the loco pilot and co-pilot were distracted by the cricket match which was going on,” Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.
The government was installing systems to ensure that drivers and their assistants remained focused when operating a train, Mr Vaishnaw said.
“We will continue to put our focus on safety,” he said.
“We try to find out the root cause of every incident and we come up with a solution so that it is not repeated.” A preliminary investigation found that the drivers of the Visakhapatnam to Rayagada train had ignored a signal and crashed into the back of the other train on the same track.
The report into the crash has yet to be made public.
The incident happened weeks after a train derailed in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on October 12, killing four people and injuring about 70.
More than 300 people were killed and hundreds injured in June last year in one of the country’s worst rail accidents, when two express passenger trains and one freight train collided, derailing a dozen passenger carriages in Odisha state. India has the world’s second-largest railway network. Millions of people travel on trains as part of their daily commute, while others undertake longer journeys.
In recent years, efforts have been made to improve safety standards on India’s decades-old rail network, with the reported number of accidents having fallen.
The government says it plans to invest about $130 billion to modernise India’s railways.
The government was installing systems to ensure drivers and assistants stayed focused, the Railway Minister said