BENGALURU: A potential accident was averted in the Bengaluru Railway Division between Channarayanapatna and Shravanabelagola stations on Wednesday morning after an alert keyman alerted a Station Master about a tipper that had fallen on the tracks. A localite had tipped him off about the incident, said an official release.
According to railway sources, the driver Dharmaraj had parked the tipper on a road near the tracks. 'He had switched off the engine and applied hand brakes of the vehicle before leaving it. When he returned after some time, he found his truck had rolled down a slope leading from the road to the tracks and fallen fully upturned on it. The driver had no clue how the brake got released," the source said.
Keyman Naveen Kumar who was on patrol duty in the area was alerted about the incident by someone around 9 am. He checked it out and immediately advised Shravanabelagola Station Master KG Chetan to stop movement of trains in that section, the release said.
The tipper was carrying sand for construction purposes to a brick factory at Shravanabelegola..
The lorry was later removed with the help of a crane at 9.48 am and the track certified fit to run with speed restrictions imposed, the release said. “Timely action by both the railway staffers avoided what could have been a serious accident today morning,” it added.
The driver was arrested and a case filed against him by the Railway Protection Force for various offences including trespassing on railway tracks, obstruction of tracks and spillage of rolling stock in the tracks, another official said.
Two trains heading along the route were stopped at the Shravanabelegola station and had a delayed departure, it said. The Yesvantpur-Karwar Express was detained for an hour while the Solapur-Hassan Express was held at the station for 55-minutes, said Aneesh Hegde, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway.