Bihar: Couple with 3-year-old son killed as train rams into car

PATNA: An engineer working for a US firm, his wife and their three-and-a-half years old son were killed when a train rammed into their car on an illegal railway crossing around 25km from Patna on Saturday. The deceased were identified as Sumit Kumar (42), Neelka Bihari (36) and Praneet.
Sumit, along with his wife and son, was going to meet his in-laws at Dharhara village under Punpun police station area. The accident took place at 6.35am when their car got stuck on the railway track while trying to cross it near Potahi railway station. Before they could understand anything, the Patna-Ranchi Janshatabdi special train came and rammed into the SUV, killing them on the spot.
“Sumit was working as an engineer for a US firm and lived in Noida. He had his residence at Anandpuri in Boring Road at Patna,” Neelka’s father Surendra Bihari Singh told TOI over phone. Sumit had come to Patna last month amid the Covid-19 pandemic and was working from home. “My grandson Praneet had been asking Sumit and Neelka for the last few days that he wanted to visit his nana-nani. On his insistence, they planned to visit us on Saturday,” Singh said.
Taregana GRP station house officer Suresh Ram said the spot is only one kilometre away from Dharhara. “Villagers had created an illegal crossing on the track where Sumit attempted to cross. His car got stuck on the track and the Janshatabdi rammed into the vehicle, killing all three on the spot,” he said.
Ram said the car was dragged for at least 400 metres before the train came to a halt after its driver applied emergency brakes. “The bodies were sent to PMCH for autopsy,” he said.
When contacted, Danapur railway division safety inspector Anil Kumar said villagers create such illegal crossings to reduce their travel distance by a kilometre or two. “Railways continuously organizes awareness programmes against such acts. We even get removed the debris put up near the track by informing the RPF. However, villagers repeatedly do it,” he said.
East Central Railway’s CPRO Rajesh Kumar, in a press statement, said attempt to cross the track at an unauthorized location resulted in the accident. He said traffic on Patna-Gaya section resumed soon. He said the accident took place at 6.35am and the train left for onward journey to Gaya at 9.37am.