A 16-year-old boy, who was critically injured in the head after falling from a train last week, succumbed to his injuries at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH) on Monday.
On September 25, the victim, G. Yuvaraj, was travelling in a general compartment of a Tambaram–Chennai Beach fast local service. Only the previous day he had joined a vocational diploma course in desktop publishing at Government Industrial Training Institute in Guindy. According to the police, he was standing very close to the entrance of the compartment when the accident took place on the stretch between Meenambakkam and Pazhavanthangal railway stations.
Yuvaraj slipped and fell and sustained critical injuries on the head. Commuters travelling in the same compartment called 108 and an ambulance first rushed him to Government Royapettah Hospital, where he was referred to GH the same day.
On Thursday, he was taken to a private hospital in Manapakkam, where doctors told Yuvaraj’s father that his injuries were too serious. “We then brought him back to the government hospital (GH). We were even ready to sell all our assets or even get a loan for the surgery, but we were informed that even that might not help Yuvaraj,” said G. Vinod, the victim’s elder brother.
On Monday, Yuvaraj succumbed to his injuries and on Tuesday, his body was brought to his home in M.R.K. Nagar, New Perungalathur. Yuvaraj is the youngest of the three sons of Gopal, who rides a bullock cart transporting construction and other materials for a living, and Gowri.
Incidents of school and college students falling off trains, while travelling near the door, account for a large number of fatal train accidents. In July, a second-year engineering student fell to his death near Chromepet and in May, a school student slipped from a train at Perungalathur. In August, an 18-year-old student escaped with injuries after falling from a train into a river at Saidapet.
