The number of casualties in the train accident on the Howrah-Chennai line in Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh rose to 14, Vizianagaram Joint Collector Mayur Ashok said on Monday, while the number of injured stood at 50.
“The number of dead rose by one to 14, of which 13 died at the accident site itself and one while undergoing treatment,” Ashok said.
Superintendent of Police M Deepika said 50 people were injured.
A senior Railway official said the injured had been shifted to hospitals in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram.
The guard of the Palasa Passenger M S Rao (58) died in the accident, along with the loco pilot, S M S Rao (52), and his assistant, Chiranjeevi (29), of the Rayagada Passenger train.
Waltair Divisional Railway Manager Saurabh Prasad of the East Coast Railway Zone (ECR) confirmed the death of the guard.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be visiting the accident site and also those injured and undergoing treatment in Vizianagaram, official sources said.
Officials of the East Coast Railway (ECR) said at around 7 pm on Sunday, the Palasa Passenger train hit the Rayagada Passenger train from behind at Kantakapalli, about 40 km from here, causing three coaches to derail.
Prasad said that all the affected coaches have been looked into and the locomotive was being lifted to see for a final round of checking by the NDRF if any bodies are still trapped inside the coaches or the locomotive or in the mangled mess.
Five coaches plus the locomotive got mangled. Three coaches were of the train which was ahead (Palasa Passenger) and two coaches and the engine were of the Rayagada passenger, the DRM said.
As many as 33 trains have been cancelled and six others rescheduled till now after the mishap in which two trains collided in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram leaving 13 persons dead, East Coast Railway officials informed on Monday.
Biswajit Sahu, Chief Public Relations Official, East Coast Railway, Bhubaneshwar confirmed that a total of 33 trains have been cancelled, 24 trains were diverted and 11 were partially cancelled following the accident involving the collision between two passenger trains between Kantakapalle and Alamanada Stations of Waltair Division.
Out of this, three trains have been cancelled and two have been rescheduled this morning, he said Chennai Central to Puri (22860), Raigada to Guntur (17244) and Visakhapatnam to Guntur (17240) have been cancelled while Chennai Central to Shalimar (12842) and Alleppey to Dhanbad (13352 have been rescheduled today, as per the East Coast Railway officials.
The collision between two trains in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district appears to be a repeat of the ghastly train disaster in Odisha nearly five months ago.
Both the collisions involved two passenger trains and a goods train.
Derailed coaches rammed into a goods train moving on an adjacent track. This added to the impact of the collision.
According to railway officials, overshooting of Signal by Visakhapatnam- Rayagada passenger train led to the collision. Human error is the likely reason for the accident, they said.
The collision took place 150 km from Odisha, which had witnessed one of the worst train tragedies in the country’s history nearly five months ago. As many as 295 passengers were killed and scores of others were injured in the triple train crash on June 2 near the Bahanaga Bazar station. The Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express had entered the loop line, instead of the main line, and crashed into a goods train parked on the loop line. Such was the impact of the collision that coaches of Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express on the adjacent track were derailed.
Railway officials had then said lapses in the signalling- circuit-alteration at North Signal Goomty station caused the Coromandel Express to enter the loop line and resulted in the rear-collision