Auto-train collision kills 3, injures 1

Three persons including two women were killed and one was injured when Yeshvantpur-Kamakhya Express hit an auto-rickshaw on an unmanned level crossing near Kharagpur in West Midnapore on Sunday evening.

Police came to know after speaking to the witnesses that the auto-rickshaw driver tried to cross the level-crossing despite knowing that the train will pass at that time. Finding the train approaching, the auto-rickshaw driver got traumatized and failed to take the vehicle out of the tracks. Apart from the driver, there were two other women passengers and a child in the auto-rickshaw. The train driver applied brakes but he failed to stop the train and it hit the auto-rickshaw. The auto-rickshaw overturned with all four of them inside and finally rested on a ground adjacent to the railway tracks. Local people rushed to the spot and initiated the rescue work. But it was quite difficult for them to bring the victims out of the auto-rickshaw. They, however, managed to bring a 55-year-old woman Amina Bibi and the child out and took them to hospital. Amina later succumbed to her injuries in Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. The driver of the auto-rickshaw and another woman died at the spot. Local people agitated against the incident and put up a block on the railway tracks.