GHOTKI, Pakistan — The driver of a passenger train misinterpreted a signal as he pulled into a station shortly before dawn yesterday, slamming into another train in a chain-reaction crash that killed at least 128 persons, authorities said.
The collision involving three passenger trains — Pakistan’s worst rail disaster in more than a decade — also left hundreds injured.
President Pervez Musharraf offered his condolences and promised that anyone guilty of negligence would be prosecuted. He said at least 135 persons were seriously injured. Hundreds of others were treated at the scene.
“It is clear that this was not sabotage. We will immediately start an inquiry and if there was any carelessness involved, it should be punished,” he told state-run Pakistan Television.
Survivors said the horror near Ghotki, in southern Sindh province, started when they were jolted awake about 4 a.m. by the screech of brakes and the thunder of impact.
“Our train was smashed from the rear and we heard a huge bang,” said Khuda Bakhsh Larak. “Our car jumped in the air and then flipped on its side.”
Mr. Larak, 50, escaped with a broken leg after he was flung against the wall of the carriage.
Others were not so lucky. The crash left metal, glass and body parts strewn across a remote railway station.
Abdul Wahab Awan, general manager of Pakistan Railways, blamed the driver of the night-coach Karachi Express for misreading a signal and rear-ending another passenger train — the Quetta Express — that was stopped in the station. The impact pushed three cars onto an adjacent track, and they in turn were hit by the Tezgam Express, heading from Karachi north to Rawalpindi. About 13 cars derailed in all.
Pakistan’s railways are antiquated, and the many accidents in recent years — including several at Ghotki — often were blamed on faulty equipment or human error.
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