Mumbai / Driver applied emergency brakes to Stops Train In Time, Saves Life Of old Man Crossing Tracks

Mumbai: A senior citizen crossing railway tracks at Kalyan station in Mumbai on Sunday narrowly escaped death when the driver of the locomotive Mumbai-Varanasi train applied emergency brakes just in time after he got an alert from the rail authorities, the central railway stated. The incident took place around 12:45 pm after the train took off from platform no. 4 of the Kalyan railway station in the Thane district. 

Man gets stuck under the train, gets saved in time 

The 70-year-old senior citizen, Hari Shankar was crossing the tracks at the time the train was approaching the station. He was crossing the track and did not notice that the Mumbai-Varanasi train was speeding towards him. He fell and got stuck under the train, the Central Railways (CR) said. Chief Permanent Way Inspector (CPWI) Santosh Kumar, who saw the man get stuck, then shouted to caution loco pilot S K Pradhan and assistant loco pilot Ravi Shankar G. The two loco pilots immediately applied the emergency brake and averted the accident. Due to the official's alertness, the man got saved in time without any major injury, as seen in the video shared by ANI. 

#WATCH | A senior citizen narrowly escaped death after a locomotive train in Mumbai's Kalyan area applied emergency brakes to save the man as he was crossing the tracks. pic.twitter.com/RwXksT3TCM

— ANI (@ANI) July 18, 2021

Apart from the loco pilots, other railway officials rushed to the spot and helped the elderly man by dragging him out. 

Rail accidents in Mumbai

Despite subsequent lockdowns and travel restrictions due to COVID-19, the number of deaths due to railway accidents amount to a total of 700 as per last year in the Mumbai Division of Central Railway records. Apart from this, around 139 people have been injured in railway-related accidents. According to a railway official from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Mumbai, a total of 1,763 people have died and 1,800 were injured in railway accidents last year.

Most of the accidents have taken place in Thane to Mumbra stretch, near the Kharegaon and Parsik Hill area, which comes under the Thane RPF. According to the officials, the majority of these accidents occur while crossing railway tracks, as many passengers violate the rules, avoid the foot-over bridge to try and take a shorter route which leads to a risk to their lives.