A Faulty Switch may have caused India's Deadliest Train Crash

The search for survivors of the deadly train crash in India ended on Sunday and rescuers do not expect to find any more survivors, Reuters reported.

At least 275 people were killed and more than 1,200 injured in India's worst rail disaster in two decades, with signal failure emerging as the likely cause of the accident, which happened around 7 p.m. local time on Friday.

The death toll was reduced from 288 after it was discovered that some bodies had been counted twice, said Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of the eastern state of Odisha - the location of the accident.

Nearly 1,200 people were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another oncoming passenger train near Balasore district.

More than 900 people have been discharged from hospital, while 260 are still being treated. One patient is in critical condition, said the Odisha state government.

The reasons

Preliminary investigations show that the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express from Kolkata veered off the main track and entered a siding used for train parking - at 128 kmph, colliding with the goods train parked on the circular track, said Railway Board member Jaya Varma Sinha.

The locomotive and the first four or five coaches of the express derailed and in overturning hit the last two coaches of the Yeshwantpur to Howrah train moving in the opposite direction at 126 kmph on the second main track.

The drivers of both passenger trains were injured but survived, she said.

The investigation into the incident focused on the computer-controlled track control system, called a "blocking system," which steers a train onto an empty track at the point where two tracks meet.

The system is...