Published Oct 30, 2023 | 8:15 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 30, 2023 | 8:15 PM
Vizianagaram train collision'. (X)
With the death toll of the Vizianagaram train accident reaching 14, the survivors of the accident recalled experiencing sudden jerks as the train they were travelling in applied its brakes several times before the collision.
At least 14 people died, and 50 people were injured when the Palasa passenger train hit the Rayagada Passenger train from behind at Kantakapalli, about 40 km from Visakhapatnam, at 7pm on the Howrah-Chennai line on Sunday, 29 October, causing three coaches to derail.
Satyanarayana, one of the survivors, told PTI that the passengers felt a few jerks followed by a huge sound and then everything came to a halt.
“We boarded the train at Vizag. Some were going till Bobbili. Suddenly brakes were applied. The train jerked thrice. People began to panic after this,” he said.
Following the crash, Satyanarayana, who was travelling in the last coach, said he and other passengers around him alighted one by one.
He also helped some survivors to disembark to safety on the fateful night. Later, the man said he received a call from an official asking for their exact location.
An unidentified woman, part of a 27-member marriage party, told reporters that people in her coach tumbled down as soon the brakes were applied.
“Children got badly hurt. I am unable to walk. One person got crushed between two seats,” said the sobbing woman, even as frantic rescue efforts were going on around her.
As survivors were talking to the media, injured persons were being moved on stretches away from the accident site for medical attention.
A policeman carried one of the injured survivors from the railway tracks.
Another survivor from Kothavalasa, who was asleep when the trains collided, said he was tossed to the floor of the coach from an upper berth.
“Before I could realise what had happened, we saw our coach and two others turning turtle and getting mangled…people were lying scattered,” he said.
Later, he managed to get out of the coach.
“A boy who came with me got stuck in a seat (until Sunday night after the accident). I saw a person die. There were so many people in the coach. Children got injured. Some suffered broken limbs. We found an opening and managed to come out,” he added, even as his white shirt got bloodied in the accident.
A preliminary railway probe into the Sunday night, 29 October, accident in Andhra Pradesh has held the driver and the assistant driver of the Rayagada Passenger train responsible for the collision as it passed two defective auto signals violating norms.
Both crew members were killed in the accident.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday visited the train accident victims at the Vizianagaram Government General Hospital and enquired about their treatment and facilities.
Accompanied by Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, Vizianagaram district collector S Nagalakshmi and others, the chief minister inspected the treatment facilities and went around talking to the victims.
Earlier, Reddy shelved his plan to visit the accident site to avoid delaying track restoration work and directly proceeded to the hospital where several survivors are undergoing treatment.
The coaches involved in the mishap were removed and track restoration work was taken up on a war footing.
Meanwhile, the East Coast Railway posted on X that the first passenger-carrying train 18463 Bhubaneswar-Bangalore Prashanti Exp passed on the affected line at 14:36hrs.
(With PTI inputs)
