Quick-Thinking Goods Train Driver Applies Emergency Brake, Saves Lives Of 20 Migrants

An alert goods train driver saved the lives of 20 migrants crossing the tracks by applying the emergency brake just 100 metres away from them near Pune.

According to a Times of India report, the migrants were walking on the tracks between the Uruli and Loni stations without realising that a high-speed goods train was approaching from the opposite direction.

PTI

On May 8, at around 7 pm, the driver from the Daund section under the Solapur division noticed a large group of migrant workers walking on the same rail track his train was moving.

A railway source told TOI that their luggage made it clear that they were migrants and that some were also seen squatting on the tracks for rest.

¡°As soon as the loco pilot saw them, he applied the emergency brake. The train was running at a high speed but fortunately, it stopped just around 100 metres away from the migrant workers.¡± a railway source told TOI.

Wikimedia Commons.

The guard and the locomotive pilot immediately alerted the control office about the incident and cleared out all the migrants from the railway tracks.

The railway ministry has been sending messages on social media about the risks involved in walking on rail tracks amid lockdown, to no avail.

A senior official of the Pune division told TOI that all the station masters, deputy station superintendent trackmen, gatemen in Pune rail division have been told to keep a watch on the tracks.

A railway protection force official said that people who were seen walking along rail tracks were being sent to quarantine centres with the help of Pune police.

A freight train ran over 15 migrant labourers between Jalna and Aurangabad of Nanded Divison of South Central Railway (SCR): Railway official #Maharashtra https://t.co/0sxdrbhCJs pic.twitter.com/aCF3mXVEI6

¡ª ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2020

The above incident happened barely 14 hours after 16 migrants who were sleeping on the tracks in Aurangabad were run over by a goods train.

The Indian Railways said on Twitter that the accident occurred between Badnapur and Karmad stations in Parbhani-Manmad section. The injured persons were taken to the Aurangabad Civil Hospital.

According to news agency PTI, the workers were walking to Bhusawal city from Jalna in central Maharashtra along the rail tracks. They were returning to Madhya Pradesh, their home state, an official at the Karmad police told the news agency. They were sleeping on the rail tracks due to exhaustion when they were run over by the goods train coming from Jalna,