4 of family killed while crossing railway tracks in Mumbai

In a tragic mishap, four members of a family were killed when they were run over by a suburban train while crossing the railway tracks between Kandivli and Borivli stations in north Mumbai on Monday morning.

The mishap took place at 6.30 am after they jumped out of a suburban local when it briefly halted between Kandivali and Borivali station and they began to cross the tracks to head to their home at Poisar locality in Kandivali. However, while crossing the tracks, the four – all cousins – were knocked down by a Churchgate-bound local coming from the opposite direction.

The police identified the four deceased cousins as Saiprasad Manohar Chavan (17), Manoj Deepak Chavan (17), Sagar Sampat Chavan (23) and Dattaprasad Manohar Chavan (20). They were killed on the spot.

The four cousins had earlier in the morning arrived at Dadar railway station from their native Kankavli in Sindhudurg district by Shatbdi Express. They had taken suburban local to Borivali to head their Poisar residence.

Meanwhile, the Railway police said that the family members, who were suspecting a foul play, had refused to accept the four bodies. ‘The family members have told that they would not accept the bodies unless either they see the footage of the incident or the Railway police ordered an inquiry into the incident,’ a senior Railway police officer said.

The predicament that the Railway police are facing is that there are no CCTV cameras in the vicinity of the spot where the incident took place. ‘In the absence of CCTV footage, there is no way we can get to know as to how the incident took place,’ the officer said.

The deaths on railway tracks have unfortunately become a common feature in Mumbai over the years.  As per the response to an RTI query given by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in January this year, as many as 3,014 commuters were killed on the tracks on the western, central and harbour suburban services in the metropolis during 2017.

Responding to an RTI query posed by activist Samir Jhaveri,  the GRP had stated:  ‘Of the total number of deaths reported in 2017 across all the suburban stations (on all three lines), 1,651 persons (1,467 men and 184 women) lost their lives while crossing tracks. Besides, 654 passengers, including 58 women, died after falling from running trains’.

‘There are three major reasons (for the deaths)-suicide, falling from trains and being hit by trains while crossing the tracks illegally. While suicides cannot be controlled, we can avoid the other two,’ a GRP official attached to the Central Railway had said.