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Indian train drivers in crash that killed 14 were watching cricket
The drivers of a train that missed asignal and ploughed into another train, killing 14 people, were distractedbecause they were watching cricket on a phone, India's railways minister saidMonday.
The fatal collision in Andhra Pradesh state in October took place as hostsIndia played England during the one-day World Cup.
"The recent case in Andhra Pradesh happened because both the loco-pilot andco-pilot were distracted by the cricket match," Minister of Railways AshwiniVaishnaw said, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
"Now we are installing systems which can detect any such distraction and makesure that the pilots (train drivers) and the assistant pilots are fullyfocused on running the train."
Hundreds of millions of fans in cricket-crazy India tuned in to watch thelive broadcast of the World Cup match, which the hosts won.
Separately, officials sacked the station master and three other employeesafter a runaway freight train travelled 70 kilometres (40 miles) without adriver last month, the Hindustan Times reported.
The men were removed from their posts for negligence after some 50 carriagesbarrelled on solo for close to two hours.
India has one of the world's largest rail networks and has seen severaldisasters over the years, the worst in 1981 when a train derailed whilecrossing a bridge in Bihar state, killing an estimated 800 people.
In June 2023, a three-train collision killed nearly 300 people in Odishastate.
In recent years India has been investing huge sums of money to upgrade thenetwork with modern stations and electronic signalling systems, reports BSS.