Watch: Guard escapes unhurt as train starts moving while he fixes pipe under coach

A guard of a train running between Howrah and Bengal’s popular beach town of Digha had a miraculous escape on Friday after the train started moving while he was under the carriage trying to fix a pipe that had detached.

The Digha-bound Howrah Digha express moved some distance with Railway Protection Force personnel frantically shouting, trying to catch the attention of the driver.

The incident happened around 11:30 am on Friday, about 20 minutes after the train left Howrah station.

The guard, SN Roy, had gone under the coach to inspect the reason it had stopped suddenly. He detected that the air pressure brake system had a snag and was fixing it. As soon as he coupled the pipe, the train started moving. He then hung onto a pipe under the carriage. After the train stopped, he got off it, unhurt.

Railway Protection Force issued a statement that said its constable Swarup Dutta, who had reached the spot, “maintained his calm and immediately, collected the walkie-talkie from the guard stuck in between the moving train. He ran beside the moving train with walkie-talkie in his hands and contacted the train driver shouting at him to immediately stop the train.”

The train, however, kept on moving.

Dutta’s shouts prompted an RPF personnel on the train to pull the alarm chain bringing it to an immediate halt.

“We have ordered for an inquiry into the incident. Primarily we suspect that it happened because of lack of communication between the guard and the driver,” said Sanjoy Ghosh, spokesperson of South Eastern Railway. SER authorities did not reveal the name of the driver.

First Published: Nov 10, 2018 17:32 IST