Oct. 30 (UPI) -- At least 14 people were killed and 50 injured in southern India's Andhra Pradesh state when a passenger train ran a signal and smashed in to the rear of another train, derailing three coaches.
A special passenger train traveling from Visakhapatnam, the state's largest city, to Palasa, was at a standstill near Kothsavatsala due to no signal when the Vizag-Raigad passenger service collided with it Sunday evening.
According to Indian Railway sources cited by Indian television news, the crash is being blamed on the driver of the Raigad-bound train -- who was among the dead -- for failing to notice a signal.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed sadness at the deaths and sent his condolences to their families. He traveled to the scene Monday before going on to area hospitals to visit with the injured, promising free treatment for those in government-run facilities.
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"The government will stand by them until they recover. I have directed the authorities to provide them with good medical care and exgratia to the families of the deceased and the injured as soon as possible," he wrote in a post on X.
Sunday's crash came four months after at least 288 people were killed and 1,200 were injured in a three-train collision in Odisha in the east of the country when an express train en route from Kolkata to Chennai in Tamil Nadu state ran into the back of a stationary freight train. Derailed coaches from the express train were catapulted onto an adjacent track striking the rear coaches of another passenger passing in the other direction.
The Aam Aadmi Party slammed the ruling BJP Party government in New Delhi saying repeated rail tragedies exposed how the country was "failing" on rail safety under the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Yet another rail tragedy. I express my deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the Andhra Pradesh train accident and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," AAP National General Secretary and MP Sandeep Pathak wrote in a social media post.
