Passengers recount moments after AP train derailment, thank God for being alive
VISAKHAPATNAM/BHUBANESWAR:The toll in the collision involving two passenger trains in Andhra Pradesh has been revised to 13, as the dismembered body of a victim was “counted as two,” before post-mortem, official sources said on Tuesday.
The Railways and Andhra Pradesh state government authorities had earlier announced the death of 14 persons in the Sunday incident that also left 50 persons injured.
As the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada Passenger Special train jumped the track on Sunday evening in Andhra Pradesh, the six-year-old daughter of Dilip Kumar Patro fell from the upper berth but fortunately did not suffer any major injury.
Patro, a resident of Odisha’s Rayagada district, was returning home with his wife, daughter and three others when the accident took place between Alamanda and Kantakapalle in the Vizianagaram-Kottavalasa Railway Section of Waltair Division of the East Coast Railway Zone.
“At around 7:10 pm, we felt a major jolt. Everything happened in seconds. My daughter who was sitting on a top berth fell down.
There were screams for help and cries all around the coaches. Initially, I did not understand what had happened but later realised it was an accident,” said Patro after reaching Raygada station on Monday.
The 35-year-old man said he took his daughter and belongings and asked his wife and other family members to get down from the tilted coach.
“With much difficulty and fear in our hearts, we could manage to get down from the train. I found people running helter-skelter near the track and two rail cars were derailed,” he said.
Patro said he had seen someone lying under a coach, who was apparently dead.
His wife said that she would never forget the evening in her life.
“We must thank God that we are alive today. At that time our lone priority was to get out of the train,” she said.
They virtually ran for around one kilometre to reach the nearby National Highway from where they could be lifted by a rescue van of the Railways.
