A train chugging through eastern India derailed early Saturday, killing 15 people and injuring 161, the BBC reports.
The Cormandel Express‚ was‚ traveling‚ from Calcutta to Chennai, when 12 to 16 cars separated from the train‚ just as it left Jaipur Road station.‚ Forty have been hospitalized with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Authorities are currently investigating possible causes for the sudden derailment.
“We do not know what caused the accident as yet,”‚ said JP Mishra, a senior spokesperson for East Coast Railway. Rescue and medical teams were rushed to the site. Since the accident took place in the dark, they used an emergency light and the help of hundreds of local citizens to aid rescue efforts.
Railway accidents like these are pretty common in India. A lot of them are blamed on poor maintenance, since the country does have one of the world’s largest and oldest railway systems (transporting more than 18 million people per day) and its workers are often sub-par and hired for little money.
Poor maintenance was probably the problem here, a spot of track that was poorly maintained, officials say, could have caused the train to flop over as it did.
The commonality of these accidents is represented by the fact that the news is no where to be found on the front page of the Times of India’s website.
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