South Western Railway employee helps avert major train accident in Karnataka

An employee attached to the South Western Railway (SWR) helped avert a major accident near the stretch of railway track between Shravanabelagola and Channarayapatna in Karnataka’s Hassan district, on Wednesday. Naveen Kumar works as a keyman in SWR, whose job is to regularly walk beside a stretch of the track to check for problems. On Wednesday morning, he learnt from a resident in the area that the truck carrying sand had toppled on the railway track, completely blocking it. 

Naveen immediately contacted the BG Nagar railway station to report the incident and advised the Station Master to stop the movement of trains in the section. “Timely action by both of them (Naveen Kumar and the station master) avoided what could have been a serious accident,” the SWR said in a statement. 

“The driver said that he had parked his truck on the road, beside the railway track, which is at an elevation. According to him, the hand brakes had failed, and as a result, the truck started moving and fell on the track,” an official with the SWR, who wished to be anonymous, told TNM.

The statement from SWR further said that using the assistance of a crane, the truck, which was obstructing the track, was removed from the track at 09:48 am on Wednesday. Later, the track was certified fit for use at 09:55 am but the speed of the trains travelling on the stretch was limited to 20 kilometres per hour.

According to the official, until the competent engineering official comes to the spot and carries out a thorough check, as per standard protocol, speed will be restricted for the first train that passes the spot, as a temporary measure of caution.

Due to the obstruction, Yesvanthpur-Karwar Express Special train (number 06211) and Solapur-Hassan Express Special train (number 01311) were delayed by 55 minutes on Wednesday.