I froze in fear seeing blood-soaked bodies strewn around, recalls Odisha train crash survivor

BENGALURU: An engine switch in Visakhapatnam flipped Santosh Jain's coach from the tail to the front. That routine exercise made the difference between life and death for Santosh who was among the 110-member group from Karnataka that was travelling to Sammed Shikharji, a Jain pilgrim centre in Jharkhand.
"We would avoid watching violent movies at home, but ended up seeing the worse...There were smashed coaches, blood-soaked bodies strewn around and several injured passengers screaming for help. It's hard to erase those images from our memory," said Santosh Jain who travelled in the Sir M Visvesvaraya-Howrah Superfast Express that derailed in Odisha on Friday night.

A native of Horanadu in Chikkamagaluru district, Santosh, 38, was part of the 110-member group from Karnataka that was travelling by the train to Sammed Shikharji, a Jain pilgrimage centre in Jharkhand. "We had no inkling we would miraculously escape from the jaws of death in one of the most horrible rail accidents that claimed more than 250 lives," Santosh told STOI over phone from Kolkata.
"We were very excited about the trip and had made preparations six months ago. Our group, comprising 55 women and a few senior citizens, boarded the train from Bengaluru. I was travelling in S5 coach and some of the pilgrims were in S3 and S7. Till Visakhapatnam, our coach was at the tail end of the train. Subsequently, the engine position changed and our coach came in front," he recalled.
Nagaswamy Shetty, another pilgrim, said when the train came to a grinding halt after a sudden jerk, they thought it was some trouble in the engine. "We were chatting with each other and having a good time when this occurred. We had no clue what really happened." Santosh said some of the upper-berth passengers, who were not holding on to anything, felt like they were being thrown off.
"Within minutes, we could hear screams from outside and see the locals running towards the train. Some of us got off the train and walked around in the dark using our mobile phone torches. What we saw was horrifying. There were coaches that had gone off the tracks and toppled. Several people were dead and their bodies were all over the place and some were stuck inside the trains. I literally froze in fear for sometime, failing to fathom what had happened," Santosh recalled.
However, realising the gravity of the situation, Santosh and his friends rushed back to their coaches and informed the other pilgrims about the accident. While some started calling their families to inform them that they're safe, Santosh along with a few others, went back to check if any other pilgrim was injured or anyone required help. "All of us survived. But that's not any consolation as there were many who died and suffered grievous injuries. It's just that we got lucky and survived because of God's blessings," he added.
The Karnataka pilgrims were later taken to Kolkata by the relief train and they proceeded with the pilgrimage.
-Thejalakshmi Suresh and Deepanka HS