The Bahanaga bazar station where the accident happened has two mainline tracks for trains to pass through (called Up Main and Down Main) and two side tracks called 'loops' used for stopping trains temporarily.
A train is accepted into loop by moving a switch which moves a piece of track. Some time before the accident, a freight train was accepted into the loop. One the train is in, the switch is moved back to point to mainline from a route relay panel. Signals along the tracks are interlinked to panel to guide the loco pilot whether to slow down or continue. In this case, the switch did not move back correctly, thus was still pointing towards loop but relayed to panel that it is set back to mainline.
Accordingly, the signals on mainline turn green showing all clear.
The loco pilot of 12841 oromandel Express sees green signals on mainline so continues driving at its maximum permitted speed of 130 km/hr. However, since the switch is set towards loop, the train tries to enter loop at this high speed and in the process, derails. The locomotive and several coaches of Coromandel Express smash into the freight train while some coaches spill over to the adjacent Down Main track. This impact causes a lot of casualties. To make things worse, exactly at this time, Down Main line has its signals green for 12864 Bangalore (SMVT) Howrah Express to go in opposite direction, also at 130 km/hr.
Would having Kavach anti collision device prevented this? No! Kavach is meant to stop a train when it senses another train on same track. It cannot sense a switch set wrong nor can it stop a train from derailing. This was a freak accident.
How could the switch be set wrong and show green signal? Is there no failsafe? There are failsafes, we don't know why and how this happened. Route interlocked signaling works fine millions of times every day across India.
Why it failed this ONE time? We don't know yet.
Tailpiece.
Got up a trifle before 6, the chores and was ready leisurely.
A quiet Sunday; heard the Rangoli.
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