Kochi: A 54-year-old man allegedly jumped in front of the Island Express at Chalakkudy station early Monday in a suspected suicide bid but had a miraculous escape when he lied down flat on the ground even as eight of the coaches passed over him. The incident happened at 6.15 am when the Kanniyakumari-bound train was chugging into the station and Shaji E., a native of Nayarangadi, jumped onto the tracks.
“The onlookers shouted as eight coaches passed over him. A school girl got unconscious and fell down on the platform. We thought he was dead. But to our surprise, we found him very much alive upon inspection after the train had come to a halt,” said a senior railway official. What saved Mr Shaji was that he lied down flat without raising his head or body. “There were few ballasts at the track which also was a factor that saved him. Otherwise, the cow-catcher before the engine would have hit him,” he said.
He was given primary treatment before the cops took him away. On Sunday, another man had a miraculous escape at Quilon railway station after he fell into the track and got trapped between the platform and the train while alighting. Johnson (54), who came to the station to see off his daughter travelling to Uttar Pradesh on the Kerala Express, was alighting from the coach even as the train started moving. An alert saved him as civil railway police officer Anupama asked him to lie down without moving.
