Human error’ led to Balasore train tragedy, says report

A high-level inquiry has identified “wrong signalling” as the main cause for the Balasore train accident and highlighted “lapses at multiple levels” in the signalling and telecommunication (S&T) department, but implied the tragedy could have been avoided if past red flags were reported. The independent inquiry report submitted by the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) to the Railway Board said despite the lapses in signalling work, corrective actions could have been taken by the S&T staff if “repeated unusual behaviour” of switches connecting two parallel tracks were reported to them by the station master of Bahanaga Bazar, the site of the accident.

The triple train accident on June 2 killed 292 people and injured over 1000.Report says initial response to disaster should be faster and advises Railways to review disaster-response system and coordination with NDRF and SDRF.Report concludes that rear-collision was due to “lapses in the signalling-circuit-alteration” done at north signal ‘goomty’ in the past and during signalling work related to level crossing gate 94.