The injured were treated at the Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai.[5] The Indian Railways cancelled two trains and diverted multiple trains.[3] The other passengers in the train were transported to Ponneri by buses and later to Chennai Central through Electric Multiple Units of Indian Railways. A special train carried them towards the original destination on 12 October. The tracks were cleared by 14 October and traffic was restored at 9:15 IST.[4]
Causes
The train crew indicated that the train switched tracks after automatically after a sudden jolt.[3] The Indian Railways constituted a high level committee for inquiry into the accident and the Government of India ordered the National Investigation Agency to investigate if the accident was caused due to sabotage.[1][2] The Commissioner of Railway Safety began the investigation on 12 October.[5] The General Manager of Southern Railway zone said that the train had no scheduled halt in the region and was given green signal to proceed. He also stated that the driver followed the signals and the train should have taken the main line rather than the loop line.[3][6]
A spokesperson of Southern Railway said that there were no casualties due to the safety features of the LHB coaches used on the train. These coaches were designed to withstand higher impact and the coupling mechanism prevented coaches from climbing on top of each other on impact. He also said that the locomotive of the passenger train impacted the brake van of the goods train, which absorbed most of the impact.[7]
