Everyone had a story to tell. Everyone is thankful that they narrowly escaped in this terrible accident. While some of them are boarding a special train from Bhadrak which will reach Chennai on Sunday morning.
Meet Venkatesan, a 39-year-old BSF soldier who is on deputation to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in Kolkata. After months, he was on his way home for a holiday and had to catch a train from Chennai to Thanjavur to meet his wife and children.
“My son was on the line asking me when I was coming home. I spoke to him and was sitting in compartment B7 when I heard a loud noise. Because of the noise, we couldn’t hear the screams from the other coaches,” he recalled.
Before anyone could do anything, the train came to an abrupt halt and some people fell off the berths. “A small child sitting next to me rolled under the lower berth. Thankfully our coach did not fall, but the other coaches were completely crushed. Had the accident happened when people were sleeping, there would have been more casualties.
Venkatesan
Being well trained, Venkatesan helped people get out of the compartment in the dark. “I was shocked. It felt like a bomb had gone off. There were bodies everywhere. It was terrible. A young man who worked in a pharmacy near the crash site gave people sponges and first aid kits,” he recalls.
He said that he was accompanied by some other residents of Tamil Nadu but was not in a position to speak. “He has got some injuries and wants to reach Chennai somehow and get treated there,” he said.
There were 18 people in the compartment who were happily on their way to Chennai to attend a wedding. The Jatha included children, senior citizens and youth. Fortunately none of them were injured.
Atul Goyal, who had booked tickets for all of them, said they have shifted to a hotel in Cuttack and will take a bus to Chennai. “It was like a nightmare, and I have not seen such an accident. Our compartment escaped unhurt and none of us were hurt. We found our way to the nearest city,” says the young man, who works in a private company in Kolkata.
Radhakrishnan, who is a paramilitary force, and his family were in the A2 coach of the Coromandel Express. He said that there were some other people from Tamil Nadu in the compartment.