Native of Madurai Prabhu Deva had come to Chennai with great hopes after years of struggling through abject poverty to get an education. He had come to city in search of a job. He was crossing the track beneath the road overbridge at MIT Gate when he was hit by the train heading towards Tambaram from Chennai Beach.
A 19-year-old youth was run over by an electric train between Chromepet and Tambaram Sanatorium stations on Sunday.
He was crossing the railway track when the accident occurred around 8 a.m.
Government Railway Police said M. Prabhu Deva, a native of Keela Kallandhiri in Madurai district, had come to the house of his uncle Bose in Chromepet a few days ago. He had completed a diploma in computer technology and was in search of a job.
On Sunday morning, he left Chromepet after informing his uncle and his cousins that he was leaving for his hometown and would return to Chennai in some days. He was crossing the track beneath the road overbridge at MIT Gate when he was hit by the train heading towards Tambaram from Chennai Beach. His body was later taken to Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet for post-mortem examination.
Prabhu Deva had come to Chennai with great hopes after years of struggling through abject poverty to get an education. His father N.Matcham had died when he was a child and his mother Meena and her mother Karuppayi are daily wage earners, earning meagre sums working in farmlands around their hometown in Keela Kallandhiri.
Meena enrolled her son at a government hostel in Sembatti, while he joined the RC High School in Michaelpalayam in Nilakottai, Dindigul District. Prabhu Deva completed his class X in 2009, scoring 390 marks out of 500, including good scores in mathematics, science and social science. As he could not continue his schooling, Prabhu Deva joined a polytechnic where he earned a diploma.
“He was a very bright student. He came to Chennai hoping to get a decent job. My son and daughter are working and I was planning to get Prabhu Deva a job with their help,” said Mr. Bose.
Prabhu Deva’s younger sister Soudha, has completed her diploma in nursing and supports her family by working at a private hospital in Madurai. Passers-by, who gathered at the accident spot on Sunday morning, appealed to the Southern Railway and the State Highways Department to permanently fence the gap at the spot, which has been the scene of several such fatal accidents.
Keywords: railway accident, Chennai accident
May God give strength to the family of the bereaved. A bright future
is nipped in the bud. No one can decide the fate. But public
awareness is more attached to such incidents. Violating common sense
and rules has been a practice and everyday traffic sense is going
lower by lower among public. I don't know which way we can learn or
teach a lesson.
As you people were discussing about the accident, life of a 55 year
old was lost at chrompet level crossing on 8th oct. I was travelling a
tirumalpur fast from beach to tirumalpur when this farmer tried to
cross the level crossing in his moped at the time when the gate was
down. He stopped just in front of the track, unfortunately the train
hit the moped's front end. I knew about his demise only after reading
today's tamil newspaper. It is shear negligence in the part of public
and the government that has lead to the loss of lives. Its high time
the government starts to work on project that the people actually need
and if this happens even the public will start following the rules.
This is a sad state of affairs along the suburban corridors of
chennai.
For instance there is no foot over bridge near the railway crossing
LC4 at korattur railway station in chennai. The station is on the busy
chennai central - Arakkonam section. There are four railway lines to
cross and there is no alternative except to cross through the level
crossing. The motorists and the pedestrians/cyclists compete for space
and during the peak hours/school time the rush is maddenning with
everybody trying to cross before the train comes. No amount of request
to the authorities have yielded any results with some vested interests
also preventing the construction of Road under bridge and pedestrian
underbridge.
This causes lot of accidents and precious lives are lost.The common
people are not to be blamed here for the level crossing gate opens
only once during an hour leading to pile up of traffic. Even the
patients requiring emergency treatment cannot be taken tot he nearest
hospital.
I still consider myself as a resident of Chromepet although I live in the USA. Early last year when I visited Chromepet and wanted to use the foot bridge. I found it to be in deplorable condition. It is used as a place for defecation and is also home to cattle and dogs. I don't think the foot bridge is well-lit either. So, how can people use it? Also, there is no way elders can climb the stairs. I don't understand why a ramp has not been built.
@John - When public are ignorant, the Government has to pitch in to
provide safety and awareness, sometimes legal action too. Providing
bridge alone is not enough. They have to fence the crossing area too.
My condolences to the family of the young man.
However, who is to blame? The train driver? We blame the Govt. but how many people we see who do not bother to wait for the signal to change or use the foot-over bridge to cross. When somebody wants to take a dangerous short-cut, disasters are bound to happen.
It is quite unfortunate that the young boy lost his life at such a crucial time of his life. Even if the authorities had fenced off such gaps, most of the time people try to tamper with such fences in an attempt to bypass any overbridge constructed for railway crossing to save time. It is high time that we Indians learn to respect rules and regulations and follow them as they are meant for our own safety. Children should be taught in their prime to respect traffic rules and no matter what should not disobey such rules. It is not only near railway lines: even road-medians are tampered with, causing accidents. Let us not blame the authorities, and start to respect rules.
It doesn't matter if the boy made 390 or 400 out of 500 marks in Xth std.
That does not count towards his common sense. Govt. is not to be blamed
for everything.
My condolences to the grieved family , i have lived in that area , and
crossed those tracks , this is not the first time it happened this paper
has reported scores ,many went unreported ,i beg to defer with John ,
cant have myopic view about the incident, govt is clearly to blame ,
every one knows that,hope the political class and authorities take some
action .(they wont, unless they are affected , i learned about the
helmet use !!)
srini
Why is everyone looking for government to do something? Don't we have sense? I have seen at many places where Railways department had provided over-bridge to walk but still people prefer to cross the track. It's shear ignorance of the public.
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