A 54-year-old gangman and his junior colleague working on the railway tracks near Hejjala station near Kengeri died when they were run over by a train Friday afternoon.
Kadirappa and Bihar native Arun Kumar (26), recruited just eight months back, were on routine inspection of tracks when the team saw the Mysore-bound Cauvery Express thundering towards them. While the others leapt towards the platform side, Kadirappa and Arun Kumar jumped on the other side of the track without noticing that the Basaveswara Express was coming from the opposite direction, hitting the two and injuring them grievously.
As both the trains don’t halt at Hejjala, they were running pretty fast and the loco pilots had not even honked, said Shanmugam, a gangman who witnessed the accident. “I shouted to alert them, but they [Kadirappa and Arun Kumar] could not hear me due to the noise of the trains. They panicked and jumped before the train coming from the opposite direction.”
When the Basaveswara Express loco pilot realised what had happened, he stopped the train. The five gangmen lifted their injured colleagues on board and took them to Kengeri Station and from there they were rushed to the Rajarajeshwari Hospital. Kadirappa breathed his last on the train while Arun Kumar was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The Government Railway Police said the victims had been unable to see the oncoming train because the other track was on a curve.
