Rae Bareli: Amid screams, Ram Autar Verma, sub-inspector of Bachrawan, the site of today’s rail mishap, saw a young man wailing in pain and begging people to sever his bleeding arm which was stuck in mangled bogey. But the youth’s cries ceased before the recuse arrived and with him lay the lifeless body of his sister, whom he saw dying, the police officer recalls.
Another passenger, who managed to scrape through the accident with just some bruises was an 11-year-old boy whose mother and brother were, however, not so lucky. Crying frantically, the boy could not divulge his name and under panic kept repeating that his mother and brother have died.
He was escorted by the police constable to a safe place. Eye witnesses said that the victims could not move out as the general bogies, in which they were travelling, are not inter connected. 35-year-old Shiv Mohan was thanking his luck as he had jumped at Bachrawan railway station to save time as the train did not stop there before the mishap. He was in the first bogey which suffered the maximum damage.
Mohan said, “It seemed as if the brakes had failed and both the driver and the guard were talking on the walkie-talkie and asking the station master to give the main line.” After the train was put on the ‘thokar’ line and the engine hit the pipes erected to stop the train, two bogies fell on top of one other, he said.
“They (driver and the guard) were also frantically signalling from the doors,” he said. They were also frantically sigalling from the doors, he said.
