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'A rude jolt threw me off the berth'

Anand Mohan Sahay in Rafigunj

When passengers boarded the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express on Monday evening, all they expected was to wake up the next morning in Delhi after a good night's sleep in the fully air-conditioned, superfast train.

But instead, after the train had passed Gaya Junction around ten in the night, they were rudely woken up by a sudden jolt to shrieks of pain and an inky darkness all around.

"Hardly 15 to 20 minutes earlier, I had got down at Gaya to smoke a cigarette. After getting back to my seat, I had just fallen asleep when the accident occurred," said Pradeep Mehta, a 38-year-old businessman, thanking god for saving him.

"I was thrown off my berth by a sudden jolt. It took me some time to realise that there was something wrong with the train," Mrs Deepen Mukherjee said.

Mehta and Mrs Mukherjee were just two of the many passengers who had horrifying tales to narrate.

Both slammed the railway authorities for being slow with the relief and rescue operations, but heaped praise on the locals who, Mehta said, rushed to the accident site carrying petromax lamps, lanterns, torches, and started freeing trapped passengers.

An injured passenger, Binay Chatterjee, who has been admitted to the Gaya hospital, said he was fast asleep when he was thrown off violently from his berth. He suffered a fracture in his leg and some injuries to his forehead.

It was the villagers nearby who first reached the accident spot and tried to help the shocked passengers.

Ganesh Singh Yadav told rediff.com that, like the other villagers, he was fast asleep after celebrating the Teej festival when he was woken up by a loud bang and cries coming from near the railway bridge.

"All of us rushed to the spot," he said. "It was our duty to help those in distress," he added modestly when told about the praise heaped upon the villagers by the grateful passengers.

A policeman standing nearby said it was the local youths who gave a 'ray of hope' to the passengers by launching rescue operations with 'only courage to bank upon' unmindful of the torrential rains.

Several passengers also praised the courage of half-a-dozen co-passengers, who lost no time in initiating rescue efforts after overcoming the initial shock.

Complete Coverage: The Rajdhani Accident

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