| India intensifies investigation into train crash |
| The authorities in India have intensified the investigation into the causes of a devastating three-way train crash in which 275 people died. While officials were looking into the malfunction of an electronic signaling system, they had not ruled out human error — or even sabotage — and vowed punishment for those responsible, India’s railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said yesterday. |
| India’s railway network is one of the largest in the world, transporting about eight billion passengers a year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has frequently publicized its investments in expanding infrastructure, but a recent official audit noted that the amount invested in safety for much of the fleet of more than 13,000 trains was decreasing. |
| Railway officials grumbled in private that by initiating a high-profile inquiry into the crash, political leaders were looking for scapegoats to distract from a well-documented truth: Despite India’s trumpeting that it has reduced the frequency of mass-casualty rail accidents in recent years, the work of assuring safety on the country’s trains remains deeply underfunded. |
| Details: A high-speed passenger train collided with a parked freight train around 7 p.m. on Friday and derailed. Some of its cars slammed into another moving passenger train. |
