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Death of two persons at railway crossing fuels protest

Staff Reporter

Manned level crossings or construction of gates sought to prevent accidents

PONDICHERRY: Death of two persons in an accident at an unmanned railway crossing on Wednesday near Villianur sparked protest from the local people over the delay in constructing a railway gate.

Kannan (49) and Ravichandran (40), both hailing from Muthupillaipalayam, who were friends, were knocked down by a ballast-cleaning machine, while crossing the Sulthanpet railway crossing on a moped at around 8.45 a.m. While the body of Ravichandran was found at the spot, Kannan's body and the moped were spotted nearly 100 meters away from the accident spot, according to the Villianur police.

The machine, which cleans the gravel on either sides of the track, was returning to Villupuram after 10 days' work in the Pondicherry sector. The police said the driver did not stop the machine, even after he was aware of the accident.

This is the second accident at the gate in a span of 10 months. In November last year, a middle-aged person was killed on the spot while crossing it on his motorbike. Just a few meters away from the Sulthanpet gate there is another unmanned crossing, where another accident occurred in September last year. A 21-year-old youth was killed.

Immediately after learning about the death of two persons, large angry residents tried to block the Pondicherry-Villupuram road. The residents wanted the railways to immediately man the crossings or construct gates to prevent such accidents.

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