At least 40 people are dead and 150 injured after an express train in Northern India collided into a parked freight train on Monday.
The Gorakhpur Express passenger train crashed into the train parked on the tracks near a railway station in Uttar Pradesh state, Yahoo News reports. The train attempted to stop at high speeds, but slammed into the freight train causing at least six of the cars on the train to derail.
As villagers fled to the scene, just six miles from the nearest road, rescue missions became difficult due to its remote location. Of the six cars to derail, the car for unreserved general seating took most of the impact and held most of the casualties counted thus far. Most of these passengers were poor farm workers returning home from the neighboring state of Haryana, said local police official Zameer Ahmad.
The train’s driver died later from serious injury and the assistant driver remains in critical condition.
According to the Associated Press , accidents are common on India’s railroad. With over 20 million people riding 11,000 passenger trains daily, most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.