Two railway staff were killed in the wee hours of Thursday after being run over by a speeding train in Karnataka in the Bangalore- Jolarpettai- Chennai Railway Section of South Western Railways. The accident took place between Varadapura Railway Station in Tumakuru and Kamasamudram Station near Kolar Gold Fields, less than 100 km away from Bengaluru at around 2:20am. They were run over by Train no 16021 Kaveri Express travelling from Chennai to Mysore, according to officials.
The deceased have been identified as track maintainer 30-year-old Hari Singh Meena hailing from Rajasthan and 28-year-old Ramaswamy, a contract employee from Gudapalli in Andhra Pradesh. Hari Singh who was deployed as night cold weather patrolman was accompanied by Ramaswamy. The duo had left Kamasamudram Railway Station at 11pm on Wednesday night along the down line on patrol, according to a senior railway official.
"As a measure towards enhancing safety, Railway takes up patrolling of the track in the midnight when the temperature falls to certain level, so as to detect any rail/weld failure to avoid any accidents. Hari Singh Meena, the deceased employee had detected two such failures in the recent past in his service and was awarded by Railway administration for his sincerity and dedication towards duty," a statement by the SWR said.
A General Railway Police official attached to Bangarpet PS, said, “We are suspecting that the two panicked after they moved from one track to another. On one track there was a goods train and on the other there was the Kaveri Express. Investigations are underway.”
Their bodies were spotted by locals and Bangarpet General Railway Police Force was informed about the incident. Bangarpet GRP have carried out post-mortem and other formalities later in the day.
A senior divisional engineer has gone to the accident site to investigate the cause of the accident. The compensation for the next of kin of the victims is yet to be announced. Additional Divisional Railway Manager Jalan refused to comment on the accident.
Vijaya, Deputy General Manager and Public Relation Officer of South Western Railways said, “In a first time kind of initiative, we have arranged for airlifting of body of our staff to native place and our officer is also accompanying for rendering all assistance to bereaved family.”
This accident comes a month after four railway staff were killed in a similar incident in Uttar Pradesh.