A 40-year-old man was run over by a suburban train near the Tiruvottiyur railway station on Monday.
The police said, around 7.30 a.m., S. Palaniswamy, a resident of West Matha Koil Street in Tiruvottiyur, was trying to cross the track near the railway station when a train hit him. Palaniswamy sustained serious injuries and was rushed to the Stanley Government Hospital, where, around 2.30 p.m., he succumbed to his injuries. A post mortem examination was done on Tuesday and the body was handed over to his family.
Palaniswamy’s death is the tenth such in less than a month on the track between Basin Bridge and Gummudipoondi, which is on the northern suburban rail line. A fortnight ago, A. Magendran (30), a medical officer attached to the primary health care centre (PHC) in Minjur was killed on a track in Pudhu Nagar near the Athipattu railway station. A day before, a 40-year-old man was killed on the track near the Kathivakkam railway station.
Every month, on an average, at least 15 persons die on the tracks between the Basin Bridge and Gummudipoondi railway stations. Of the nearly 20 railway stations between, a police source said, stations like Tiruvottiyur, Ennore, Kathivakkam, Korrupet, Basin Bridge, Minjur, Ponneri and Gummudipoondi are high accident-prone spots. This is mainly due to congested habitations along the tracks in these places and a lack of side walls along the tracks.
“Persons between 18 and 30 years of age comprise a large number of the victims. Most of the victims wear headphones and don’t hear an approaching train until it is too late,” said a railway official.
