The Coromandel Express was traveling through Odisha state on the main track line, but was signaled to switch to an adjacent loop line, according to authorities.
A freight train carrying iron ore was already on the secondary line, and the Coromandel Express plowed into it Friday night in Balasore.
The impact flipped train coaches onto another track, where they collided with a second passenger train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Express.
Further investigation will be needed to determine if the signal error was a computer glitch or a human mistake, senior railway official Jaya Verma Sinha said.
“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” she said.
The three-train crash was one of the deadliest in India in decades. However, train-related deaths are common in what is now the world’s most populous country.
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