Loco’s driver saw them too late

Aurangabad train crash: MP’s group had been waiting to return home, as had the thousands of migrants during the shutdown. (Express photo)

“We had registered two or three days ago (for the special trains to return home), but they did not call me. Ghar par bhi kaam tha, toh kya karte, nikal gaye (They needed us at home, so we left,” he said. Shivbhan Singh, 25).

That is why, after weeks of waiting for the national closure, the group of 20 decided to walk the 850 km journey from their steel mills in Jalna to their homes across the border in the Umariya and Shahdol districts of Madhya. Pradesh. Shivbhan was one of four in the group who escaped unharmed while 16 of his traveling companions were shot down on an empty freight train in the Aurangabad district early Friday morning.

MP’s group had been waiting to return home, as had the thousands of migrants during the confinement. “Our contractor tried to stop us and said that the factory will start sometime, but that my kachcha ghar in town was in need of repair. I had to come back, “he said.

The group, railway officials said, must have relied on the belief that it was safe to do so because passenger train services had been suspended as part of the shutdown. (Express photo)

After convincing their contractor to allow them to leave, the group packed some rotis and chutney for the journey ahead and, around 7 p.m. Thursday, left Jalna. Shivbhan said they had traveled about 40 km on a narrow inland road when, in a place called Badnapur, they saw railroad tracks and slept on tracks, hoping that no train would run and started walking on them.

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Survivors and officials said the group was heading to Bhusaval, 350 km from the crash site, from where they hoped to get some transport to Madhya Pradesh. They were only 25 km from Aurangabad, from where a train would depart for Madhya Pradesh on Friday night, but the group knew nothing about it.

As the night wore on, around 3.30 in the morning, the exhausted group decided to rest for the night. Singh, along with Briandra Singh and Indalal, lagged 200 meters behind the group and slept on the ground near the tracks, while the 17 who were ahead decided to lie down on the tracks.

Railroad officials said 14 of them appeared to have slept on the sleepers, including resting their heads on the railing, while the remaining three slept near the tracks. The group, they said, must have relied on the belief that it was safe to do so because passenger train services had been suspended as part of the blockade.

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“We couldn’t see them clearly, but they turned on the lights on their mobile torches to tell us they were resting there,” Shivbhan said.

Meanwhile, piloting the empty freight train from Cheralapally in Hyderabad on his way to Paniwada in Manmad in Maharashtra, mad pilot Ramashish Kumar was running between the Badnapur and Karmad railway stations when he saw some obstruction on the tracks, railway officials said, adding that it was only when the train reached 160 meters from the “obstruction” that Ramashish noticed that there were people on the tracks.

According to Nanded Divisional Railroad Manager Upendra Singh, as soon as the mad pilot realized there were men on the tracks, he applied the emergency brakes and pressed the beep to make a hissing sound. “The train was moving at a speed of 70 km / h,” Singh said, and when it stopped, it was too late.

Later, Indalal, Shivbhan, and Birandar Singh, lying off the tracks, woke up to the shrill sound of the train sting through the night. “Before I could fully awaken, it was all over,” Indalal said.

The train brought down the 14 men who slept on the tracks. Two others who slept just off the tracks were seriously injured and died in hospital. Sajan Singh, who was also sleeping near the tracks, managed to get out of the way of the train, but his bag fell under the wheels of the train. He has injuries to his knees and back.

The train’s long siren alerted people in the nearby town of Satna, who ran to the scene when the mad pilot reported to the railway’s control room.

Those who survived were rushed to the Aurangabad Civic Hospital, where a post-mortem procedure was performed, while an accidental death report was recorded at the Karmad police station. The railways have ordered an investigation into the incident by the Railroad Safety Commissioner.

Additional police superintendent Ganesh Gawde said the bodies of the 16 victims, along with two of the survivors, would be sent back to Madhya Pradesh. “Of the other two, Sajan Singh is in the hospital and Birandar Singh stays with him.”

While Shivbhan and the other survivors said they had registered for the special trains, Madhya Pradesh’s additional chief secretary ICP Keshari told The Indian Express that the workers had not registered for a place on any of the special trains, nor in Madhya Pradesh or Maharashtra. Keshari said the immigrants decided to return home after a discussion with the labor contractor, who wanted them to stay behind and work at the factory that was to restart operations. Keshari said the contractor did not allow the workers to register with the authorities.

A train that arrived in Bhopal on Friday had 170 Jalna workers and another 70 from Jalna would leave for Jabalpur on Friday night. The victims apparently did not know about any of the trains. The train will now carry 16 bodies to Jabalpur in a sealed compartment. From Jabalpur, the bodies will be taken to the Shahdol and Umaria districts.

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