Howrah: “It was all dark outside. We were pulled out through the window by locals. I was holding onto my 10-year-old son Saquib while my husband shielded our younger son, who is five,” recalled Dolaha Biwi, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stood on platform number 8 at Howrah station Saturday afternoon.
Dolaha, her husband Asu Sheikh and their two boys boarded the Howrah Yesvantpur Express from Bengaluru Friday. Hours later, the train was involved in a horrific collision in Odisha’s Balasore district with the Coromandel Express headed for Chennai and a goods train, which claimed at least 288 lives and left more than 900 injured.
“My husband works as a mason in Bengaluru and I am a house help. We were returning home to Nadia, West Bengal, when we noticed sparks coming out of our bogey’s wheels. Then the bogie overturned,” she said, expressing disbelief at how their entire family had survived the accident.
Dohana’s family, which reached Howrah aboard a special train ferrying survivors from the accident site in Balasore, was immediately rushed for medical aid.
The Railways is also running special trains to take relatives to Balasore from Howrah. The West Bengal government has confirmed the deaths of 35 passengers from the state. According to a press statement released by the secretariat, 544 passengers from the state have been injured.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the accident site Saturday afternoon. Taking stock of the situation, she said, “Coromandel is one of the best express trains. I was the railway minister thrice. From what I saw, this is the biggest railway accident of the 21st century.”
She added, “Such cases are handed over to the Railways’ safety commission and they investigate and give a report. There was no anti-collision device on the train, as far as I know. Had the device been on the train, this would not have happened. The dead can’t be brought back, but now our work is the rescue operation and restoration of normalcy.”
ThePrint caught up with some survivors at Howrah station, and all had similar stories to share.
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‘Can’t close my eyes’
Also among the survivors was 21-year-old Rahul Sharma from Bihar’s Motihari district. He was in S3 bogie of the Coromandel Express, the train that bore the brunt of the mishap with nearly 12 of its bogies strewn off the track like dominoes.
“I boarded the train from Damyantipur. I was going to Tamil Nadu to find work and earn to support my family. I had a place to sit when a woman passenger requested if she could sit for a while as she was tired. Around 7pm, there was a loud noise and the bogie turned over thrice. I climbed out of the emergency exit window,” he said.
Joni Sarda, Sharma’s friend who was with him, sustained minor injuries on his back. “We were in the sleeper class, the bogie was filled with passengers. There was a big jerk, the lights went out and cries started getting louder. I still can’t believe I’m alive. There were dead bodies all around us. Some didn’t have arms, some were drenched in blood, unrecognisable,” he said, sitting at Howrah station, unable to speak to his family after having lost all his belongings.
In tattered clothes, his footwear gone, 30-year-old Moti Sheikh from Ketugram in Bengal could barely stand. The Railway Police rushed him to the medical kiosk, and while his wounds were being dressed, he recalled the night he got a “second life”.
“I work at a leather jacket factory in Chennai. I wasn’t well, so I took leave and came home. We are daily wage earners. I was returning to Tamil Nadu to join work as my wife and three children depend on me…I can’t dare to shut my eyes…the flashbacks are so terrible that I can’t breathe,” he said.
“Allah has given me a second life. I managed to come out alive, many others in my S4 bogie of Coromandel Express have died. There were many children and women in my bogie. I can’t fathom the magnitude of this incident. I am alive, but I can’t ever forget this accident,” he said, holding his bandaged arm.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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