AGRA: Two persons were killed and five others were injured on Tuesday morning after they were hit by Delhi-bound Chhattisgarh Sampark Kranti Express at
Kosi Kalan railway station, 41 km away from Mathura city.
The deceased has been identified as
Than Singh Baghel (22), resident of Nagariya village of Kosi Kalan, while the injured were identified as Megh Singh(23), Dayanand (26), Neeraj (20), Sandesh (25) and Krishan (25). All the five vicitms were admitted in government hospital.
According to railway protection force, the accident occurred at around 7:48 am, when scores of passengers in a bid to secure a berth for themselves in heavily crowded Agra-New Delhi intercity, embarked on the train from wrong side of station platform.
Speaking to TOI, RPF Kosi Kalan station house officer, Ram Babu said, “As soon as Delhi-bound Agra intercity made a halt at Kosi Kalan platform one, scores of passengers jumped on track from platform two and ran toward intercity to board it. Unfortunately, at the same time Chhattisgarh Sampark Kranti Express which had no halt at Kosi Kalan arrived on the down track (toward Delhi) and six passengers were hit by the speeding train.”
After the accident, chaos and horror spread among other passengers. The GRP and RPF men immediately made arrangements to take the victims to nearest government hospital.
Speaking to TOI, Sanchit Tyagi, divisional commercial manager (DCM) of Agra division said, “Station director Mathura and senior DCM have reached Kosi Kalan to keep tab on the situation and ascertain as why and how the passengers jumped on track to embark on train from wrong side.”
It’s important to note, that in just the last seven months, 279 people were killed in Agra GRP division jurisdiction after falling off trains or being run over.
The casualties were recorded in 12 police jurisdictions including Agra Cantt, Agra Fort, Mathura, Tundla, Firozabad, Aligarh, Hathras, Etawah, Mainpuri, Kasganj and Farrukhabad junctions and Etah station.
GRP officials added that 117 ill passengers died during their journeys on board trains. Most of these deaths occurred in May (23 deaths) and June (26). In total, 396 casualties were reported from January to July-end, of which 127 bodies could not be identified and were cremated by GRP at their expense.
Further between the period of 2014 to 2018 March end, total 23,013 passengers were killed while trespassing railway track, alighting from a running train or falling off one while standing close to the door and other reasons. The data was collected from Government Railway Police of various states.
