The Indian Railway Minister said today that the causes and those responsible for the railway tragedy which occurred on Friday in the eastern part of the country, one of the worst in recent decades in Indiareferring to a malfunction of the electronic signaling system.

According to the toll so far, 288 people – including babies, children and teenagers – have died and around 900 have been injured.

“We have identified the causes of the accident and the people responsible for it,” Ashwini Vaishnau told ANI today, adding, however, that it was “not right” to divulge any further details before the final report on the incident is published.

According to him, “the change made during the electronic clutch is responsible for the accident‘, a reference to the complex signaling system by which railway lines are managed to avoid such collisions.

“The culprit and the manner in which the accident occurred will be identified after conducting a proper investigation,” he stressed.

There is currently confusion over the cause of the accident, but the Times of India, citing a preliminary report, said today that “human error” may have caused the three trains to collide.

The Coromandel Express, running the Calcutta-Madras route, was given permission to enter the main line, but due to human error it entered another train which was already carrying a commercial train, the newspaper explained.

The passenger train collided with the commercial train at a speed of 130 kilometers per hour. Three coaches fell onto the adjacent railway track, hitting the rear of an express train running the Bangalore-Calcutta route. That collision caused the most damage, the Times adds.