On Friday night, June 2, there was a train crash in Odisha, a state in India. At least two hundred people were killed and about nine hundred more were injured in the accident. People nearby said that the train crash felt like an earthquake. The accident involved three different trains. Two were passenger trains and the other was a freight train. One of the passenger trains hit into the freight train. This was likely due to a signal error. This then caused the train to derail and ten to twelve train cars came off the track. Wreckage from these cars spilled onto another track, leading to the derailment of the second passenger train. Hundreds of ambulances responded to help the injured passengers. Rescue teams arrived to pull survivors from the wreckage. They are still in the process of identifying the bodies. The unidentified bodies will likely have to go for DNA testing. In order to help families whose loved ones were killed or severely injured in this crash, the government is going to be giving payment to these families.

Recently, India created a new high speed train with more modern safety features. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been concentrating on the remodeling of the Indian train system. This is a huge undertaking because they have the largest train system in the world. The original plan was for the Prime Minister to unveil this train on Saturday, June 3. However, in light of the crash from the day before, they had to cancel the event. Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, said “the crash should ‘shake up the whole railway system’ and prompt authorities to look at the ‘lax safety culture’” (apnews.com).