Kerala - Kollam   

Major train accident averted at Kundara

Staff Reporter

GRAVE DANGER: The portion of the rail track over the culvert from which sand and masonry were washed away on Sunday at Kundara on the Kollam-Punalur metre-gauge route.

KOLLAM: Following the timely presence of mind on the part of a passerby, a major train accident was averted on the Kollam-Punalur metre gauge sector at Kundara on Sunday morning. Sand and masonry of a culvert near the Pallimuuku portion of the rail track was found washed away by a local resident, Rajagopal, who was on his way to a teashop at 7 a.m. Only the track with the sleepers lay exposed.

Though he alerted the gatekeeper of a nearby level-crossing, the former simply ignored the warning. It was also the time for the Kollam to Tirunelveli passenger train (no., 644) to pass that way. Rajagopal them walked some distance towards Kundara and as he heard the train approaching, he removed his red coloured shirt and waved.

The train soon came to a grinding halt some 50 meters before the culvert. The engine driver soon noticed that had the train passed over the culvert, the train would have derailed and met with an accident.

The train was soon pulled back to the Kundara station and emergency measures were taken to buttress the track passing over the culvert. By 10.15 a.m. railway engineers declared the track fit for the train to pass over.

By 10.30 a.m. the train crossed over the culvert and proceeded to its destination.

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