Boy slips, falls from train as mother, sister watch in horror

CHENNAI- TAMBARAM- TAMBARAM 14 DECEMBER 2012 FOR CITY- : Passengers at Perungalathur railway station that basic amenities here are abysmally low. The concrete slabs on the extended platform are uneven posing a huge risk to commuters getting down from suburban electric trains. Photo: M.Srinath. Story by K.Manikandan. PHOTO: M_SRINATH.

An 18-year-old youth, S. Kirubakaran, died after he slipped and fell from a suburban electric train between Tambaram and Perungalathur railway stations on Thursday night.

Frantic attempts by his mother and sister and fellow passengers to get him medical aid were in vain as he was declared dead on arrival at a hospital.

Incidentally, his father too had died at the same spot in similar circumstances in 2001.

Kirubakaran, his mother Mangamma and sister Merina had boarded the train at Pazhavanthangal railway station and were to get down at Perungalathur from where they planned to catch a bus to Salem.

They were going to their native place there to attend a festival. Kirubakaran had quit school while in class XI and was considering a course in a polytechnic.

“He kept the baggage near the door so that we could easily unload it at Perungalathur railway station. Around 10.45 p.m., he leaned outside but slipped and fell in the process,” recalled Ms. Merina.

One of the commuters immediately pulled the emergency chain and brought the train to a halt.

“My mother and I and some others jumped down from the compartment and tried to move his body to the side of the Grand Southern Trunk Road,” she said. An onlooker also informed a 108 ambulance service. However, the group decided to rush him to a hospital immediately on a motorcycle. “We had managed to make him sit on the motorcycle when the ambulance reached the spot. By that time, he was severely bleeding and unconscious,” said his sister.

Kirubakaran was taken to Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Doctors there said he had suffered injuries on his face and head.

The post-mortem examination was conducted on Friday afternoon and the body handed over to his relatives.

The victim was the youngest of the three children of Ms. Mangamma and Singaravelan, a former employee of Indian Airlines.

The latter had died when he was hit by an electric train between Irumbuliyur between Tambaram and Perungalathur railway stations in 2001.

After his death, his wife got a job with the airline company as an office assistant on compassionate grounds.