August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 11:16 a.m. EDT (1516 GMT)

In this story: Families try to identify relatives Investigators to question signal crew RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

GAISAL, India (CNN) -- Rescuers have given up hope of finding more survivors of Monday's massive Indian train wreck, but they continued picking through the wreckage of the disaster Wednesday as the death toll climbed to 278.

Weary emergency workers took their first break on Wednesday from nearly two days of clearing wreckage and bodies from the site of Monday's horrific train crash. Rescuers resumed the search Wednesday evening, using blowtorches to cut into wrecked train compartments where more bodies might be found.

No one was thought to remain alive in the tangled heap of charred steel where an Awadh-Assam express train collided with a New Delhi-bound train at the Gaisal railway station, about 499 kilometers (310 miles) north of Calcutta.

About 2,500 people were aboard the two trains when they collided just before 2 a.m. Monday, each traveling about 95 kph (60 mph). Most of the passengers were sleeping when the collision happened.

Rescue and recovery work was slow at the scene, where 110 degree Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) temperatures hampered workers and tens of thousands of onlookers crowded the area. In addition to those killed, nearly 300 others were injured in the wreck.

About 400 survivors straggled home on Wednesday in the pre- dawn darkness.

"I don't know how I survived," Fazlul Haq, from the nearby town of Faridabad, said. Haq's coach was at the bottom of a pyramid of four mangled carriages.

"At least 50 passengers in my coach died," he said, and just 20 survived.

Families -- terrified that a brother, sister, parent or child might be among the dead -- were taken solemnly down the line of sheet-draped bodies. One by one, rescue workers uncovered the face of each victim in an effort to identify the remains.

Doctors said many of the survivors remained in shock. Some had passed out from the impact. Many had to jump from coaches piled as high as 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 meters) high.

As the search for more victims continued, Indian authorities began to search for the cause of the crash -- the country's worst rail disaster in four years.

Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety N. Mani began his probe at the crash site on Wednesday: He was expected to question three railway signal operators who fled the scene after the wreck. Authorities were still looking for a fourth operator, who remained missing Wednesday.

Mani will submit a preliminary report by mid-August. But the chairman of India's railway commission said the Awadh-Assam Express may have been on the wrong track for as much as nine miles (14 km) before hitting the Brahmaputra Mail.

India's railway minister, Nitish Kumar, announced his resignation over the crash, the worst in India since a 1995 wreck near New Delhi killed 358 people. Kumar called the wreck a case of "criminal negligence."

Commentators shrugged off Kumar's move, pointing to Indian Railways' management for a safety record that includes about 300 accidents a year -- two-thirds of which are blamed on staff negligence.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee refused to accept Kumar's resignation, but his government ordered an inquiry into the accident and announced it would convene a commission to investigate the cause of recent crashes on India's rails.

The country has one of the largest rail networks in the world, carrying 11 million passengers per day on tracks that are often poorly maintained. Six previous fatal accidents in India this year have resulted in more than 150 deaths.

Correspondent Satinder Bindra, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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