LUCKNOW: Several precious lives were saved by the presence of mind of a village woman in Etah district who fluttered her red saree to avert a major rail accident due to broken tracks near Kusba railway station, 20 km from the district headquarters, on Thursday.
While going to the fields, Omvati, 65, of Guleria village in Avagarh block of Etah district, spotted a big crack in the railway track. She thought of alerting the driver of the next train. Finding nothing suitable to raise a flag, she undraped her red saree and started fluttering it on the tracks.
Later she hung the saree on the track signalling danger with the help of a piece of stem taken from a nearby tree.
Soon a passenger train from Etah to Tundla came chugging in but the driver spotted the red sari and applied the brakes in time. On finding the tracks damaged, the driver of the passenger train informed his seniors who reached the spot and got the tracks repaired. The train could continue its journey after an hour.
However, the driver of the train appreciated the effort of Omvati and gave her Rs 100 as a token of her presence of mind and courage. Omvati said she removed her saree and set it on the tracks thinking that it might alert the driver about the risk as the red colour is the sign of danger. She also said that the driver rewarded her with Rs 100 despite her refusal to accept the money.
Meanwhile, a UP cop named Sachin Kaushik also shared the entire episode on social media saluting the spirit of the village woman.
Sachin Kaushik tweeted: "Ms Omvati spotted the broken tracks while going to work in her field in the morning. When the train was about to arrive, she spread her red saree on the track with the help of wood across the track as the signal of danger."
As per railway sources, the same train had passed the track from Tundla to Etah during which the track might have got damaged. However, the lineman of the track Javed claimed that it was found to be fine a day before during the checking.