Odisha train accident: Jaya Verma Sinha said that the reaction time at such a high speed was very short.

The Railway Board today gave detailed information about the horrific triple train accident incident in Balasore, Odisha on Friday night. At least 275 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in the incident. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that the accident was caused by a problem in the "electronic interlocking system".

The Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore, where the horrific accident took place, is a four-line station, the railways said. There are two main lines in the middle and two loop lines on either side. Iron-laden freight trains run on both loop lines.

Railway Board Member (Operations and BD) Jaya Verma Sinha said the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandal Express was going from Chennai to Howrah and the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express was coming from Howrah. The signals on both main lines were green. The Coromandel Express was running at a speed of 128 km per hour and the second passenger train was running at a speed of 126 km per hour. The range is 130 kmph, so none of them were in overspeeding.

That said, a signaling problem was detected. The details will be revealed only after further investigation. He said that the response time at such a high speed was very short. "There was a signalling interference," he said, adding that it would not be right to call it a failure. The Railway Board has repeatedly reiterated the Railway Minister's claim that these are only preliminary findings and nothing concrete can be said till a formal inquiry is completed.

Jaya Verma Sinha repeatedly insisted that only one train, the Coromandel Express, met with the accident, not three, as allegedly anticipated.

"For some reason this train crashed, the engine and coaches got on to another train," Sinha said, explaining that the train crashed after colliding with a goods train loaded with iron ore parked in the loop line. He claimed that the goods train suffered shocks when the collision took place as it was too heavy. Sinha said the coaches of the Coromandel Express got stuck on the third track and rammed into two coaches of the speeding train coming from Howrah.

"Linke Hoffman was the Bush (LHB) coach, who is very safe," he said, adding that the damage was more due to iron ore.

The railways has said that the indigenously developed automated train protection system "Kavach" was not available on the route where the accident took place on Friday evening.

Sinha dismissed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's question on the absence of "armor", reiterating the railway minister's claim that the accident had nothing to do with armor as it would not have been helpful in averting such an accident. Citing the example of a sudden fall of boulders in front of vehicles, he said that no technology in the world can prevent some accidents.

The system alerts when a loco pilot crosses a signal (Signal Pass at Danger (SPAD). Ignoring this is one of the major reasons for collisions in trains. The system can alert the loco pilot, control the brakes and stop the train automatically when there is another train within a set distance on the same line.

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