Bangalore-Ernakulam express accident: Ambulance reached late due to poor road
The first ambulance reached the spot only 40 minutes
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-02-14 08:01 GMT
Bengaluru: While investigations into the cause of the derailment of the Ernakulam-bound Intercity Express are under way, RPF police officials are yet to determin if the driver was speeding as he came up to a turn and lost control when he slammed the brakes or whether the train or the track had a mechanical glitch.
The first ambulance reached the spot only 40 minutes after the accident as the only road to the main railway crossing is a dirt road. Minutes after the medical teams arrived, the rescue team, including fire service personnel and the national disaster response force (NDRF) followed.
Two teams from the NDRF comprising of 90 men began painstakingly cutting through the metal walls of the bogies using gas cutters, extricating the victims, trapped between the two crashed bogies. Only then were the injured packed into the waiting ambulances and sent to the nearest to hospital in Anekal. The entire operation took over five hours.
Nine dead bodies, including that of three women and one child, were shifted to the mortuary of Anekal Taluk Hospital for a post-mortem. Nine injured were referred from Anekal Taluk General Hospital to Sparsh, Victoria.