Mumbai: The derailment of a CST-bound local near Titwala on Thursday afternoon resulted in one death and 14 persons getting injured. The mishap occured due to decoupling of the sixth coach, resulting in the six coaches behind moving off the track.
Lack of sufficient help caused the death of 25-year-old Dhaval Lodhaya. The Ghatkopar resident was on his way back from a temple visit at Kasara when the train met with the accident. “He lost balance as the train started trembling all of a sudden. He was lying in a pool of blood for around 30-45 minutes, but nobody arrived at the spot to give him medical attention,” said Lodhaya’s friend, who was travelling with him. Soon after reaching the hospital Lodhaya was declared dead. Motorguard R.N. Dube is said to be injured, while S.K. Mishra the motorman escaped with minor scrapes.
Deepak Parab (49) was travelling with his wife Gauri (45) and caught the 1.32 pm from Titwala. Mr Parab said, “Suddenly a lot of mud and dust entered the coach and people started screaming. Women and children where rolling all over the train,” adding, “I observed that there was no oncoming train, so we got out and helped women and children to get out as well and ran to the road after which we caught a tempo to Kalyan.”
Nigesh Athavle (45), a local who heard the commotion came rushing to the spot. He said, “We realised this was not a regular accident. We began to run to the train and helped people into tempos, rickshaws, anything we could get.” Four injured persons are at Fortis Hospital and four others are at Railway Hospital, Kalyan.
A senior railway official said, “The incident become so serious because along with the decoupling, the train was heading down a gradient and the right side of the train did not follow the track curve but kept going straight.”
The CR divisional railway manager, Mukesh Nigam said, “We are looking into all angles of the incident.” A similar incident had occurred on February 17 when the coupling of a train heading towards Kalyan had come apart at Diva.
