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Monday, Feb 16, 2009
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Accident survivors heave a sigh of relief

R. Srikanth

The whereabouts of a Thanjavur youth unknown

CHENNAI: When the special train arrived on platform no. 6 at Chennai Central railway station on Sunday morning, the sense of relief was evident on the face of the 450 passengers who survived the derailment of the Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandel Express.

Hours before the train arrived, anxious relatives and friends started thronging the station, even as several teams of railway officials made arrangements for the passengers, particularly those who preferred to travel from accident site with injuries.

At least nine persons died in the accident that took place on Friday night near Jajpur-Keonjar Road in Orissa.

The whereabouts of a 24-year-old youth from Thanjavur, who is said to have travelled by the train, is unknown.

Family members of E. Senthil Kumar, a native of Perugavalarndhan in Thanjavur district and who was employed in a private firm here, are clueless about his whereabouts.

He had gone to Kharagpur on official work. Rajan, a friend of Mr. Kumar, came to the station on Sunday to enquire about his whereabouts with the railway officials.

On coming to know of the accident, Mr. Kumar’s sister had called his mobile phone and the call was taken by an unknown person, who said Mr. Kumar was dead. After a few minutes when they called again, the phone was switched off, Mr. Rajan said.

Soon after the train arrived around 7.10 a.m., the team of doctors provided medical assistance to the injured. A number of railway officials and Railway Protection Force personnel were present to guide the passengers. The railway authorities had arranged Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses to take the passengers to various locations in and around Chennai, including Guduvanchery and Avadi.

‘A miracle’

Many of the passengers recollected the incident with shock. M.K. Muralidharan, one of them, said he escaped unhurt as he was in the last compartment. “It is only a miracle that saved me from such a terrible accident, the impact of which uprooted railway tracks for quite a distance,” he said.

Abdur Razak of Bihar, who is studying in a private college here, said he was in S2 coach with a group of students from his hometown. All of them escaped with minor injuries.

His friend Vikas Kumar said it was around 8 p.m. on Friday when the sleeper coach in which they were travelling turned turtle and ended up on top of two other bogies. It was a scary sight to see the two coaches buried under their coach with people screaming for help and some trying to come out of the compartments.

Mani Barathi, a Thiruverkadu resident, who was on an official trip with his friend, said: “We were in S8 coach, when we heard screeching noise of brakes being applied. When the same noise recurred, we became cautious and held on to our seats firmly even as the coaches started rocking. While many women and children fell down, a group of youngsters got up and started helping them to get out of the compartment.”

Mr. Barathi said the place where the accident happened was a small village with minimum facilities, but still a number of people took shelter in a nearby temple and the local people immediately arranged food for them.

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