A PASSENGER train crash in central Tanzania that killed 228 people was caused mainly by the engineer's inexperience, investigators said Wednesday.

　　The crash, Tanzania's worst rail accident, happened in June after a passenger train carrying more than 1,200 people stopped on a hill and then raced backward and smashed into a cargo train.

　　The passenger train's engine stopped as it was going up the hill at which point the engineer, or driver, Godfrey Chiwelesa, failed to use the braking system correctly, allowing the train to roll backward, the government-team said in a statement Wednesday.

　　The statement did not explain why the engine stopped.

　　"The basic reason why the train raced backward was a result of human error due to the driver's inexperience," the statement said. It did not detail the driver's experience.

　　Survivors said Chiwelesa jumped off the train when it started rolling backward.

　　Chiwelesa, who suffered minor injuries in the accident, has been held in police custody since June, but has not been charged.

　　The train's third class carriages were overloaded and had no partitioning which meant they collapsed easily, the investigation found.