Odisha train disaster: Coromandel Express driver, assistant stable, will be quizzed

The engine driver and his assistant of the Coromandel Express, one of the three trains involved in a deadly accident in Odisha that killed nearly 300 people, are in hospital but in stable condition, officials said on Monday.

Driver Gunanidhi Mohanty and assistant Hajari Behera are being treated at the AIIMS Bhubaneswar. Both men were rescued from the Coromandel Express which derailed near Bahanaga Bazar Station on June 2 in the grisly disaster that also injured around 1,200 people.

Mohanty was moved out of the ICU on Monday. Behera is awaiting a head surgery, South Eastern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Aditya Choudhury told a television channel. Families of both the drivers have claimed that the two could not be blamed for the accident as they operated the locomotive as per rules.

Also read: Tracks restored, Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat safely crosses Odisha train crash site

The Commissioner Railway Safety, SER Circle, which began its inquiry into the accident on Monday, will record the statements of the two drivers after their recovery.

A coal-laden goods train from Vizag port to Rourkela Steel Plant was the first to run on the restored tracks around 10.40 pm on Sunday, hours after both the up line and the down line tracks were repaired. The first high speed passenger train – the Howrah-Puri Vande Bharat Express — passed through Balasore on Monday morning through the same tracks.

Most coaches of the Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train at 7 pm on June 2. Some coaches toppled over the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express which was passing by at the same time. Investigators are looking into possible human error, signal failure and other possible causes behind the three-train crash.

(With agency inputs)