KOLAR/BENGALURU: In a tragic outcome following the failure of electric power supply that facilitates running trains in Bengaluru, a 24-year-old call centre employee trespassing on the railway tracks near Tyakal station in Kolar district, was fatally run over by the Shatabdi Express heading from Bengaluru to Chennai at 8.38 am on Wednesday.
His train, the Kolar-KSR Bengaluru train had halted midway on the adjoining tracks and he was walking on this track along with others. It is said that another passenger also sustained injuries in the accident at Tyakal, located 60 km from Bengaluru.
The victim, Shabaz Ahmad Sharif, a native of Bangarpet, was employed at Vindhya Infotech Solutions at Rajaji Nagar in Bengaluru. He failed to escape from the tracks in the nick of time despite the loud honks of the loco pilot and warning screams of other passengers on the tracks who escaped, said sources.
While a source alleged that Sharif had his earphones on him and hence missed paying attention to the approaching train and others, the victim’s younger brother, Ian Mohammed claimed that was not true. He told TNIE, “My close friends were also travelling on the train with my brother said that around 100 passengers were on the tracks when they spotted the Shatabdi approaching. Everyone moved out but my brother got frightened and could not act quickly as he panicked and just stood still. Sharif does own a headphone and uses them only at night at home. Even now it is there only.”
Meanwhile, in sheer rage after the incident, many passengers abused and manhandled station master Raja Babu at Tyakal station. “They blamed him for not alerting the loco pilot of the Shatabdi to run slow due to the power failure of other trains and the presence of people on the tracks. The station master’s shirt was torn due to the scuffle but he refused to file any complaint against them with the Government Railway Police,” a top source said.
Tracing the events leading to the accident, a source said that two passenger trains, Marikuppam-KSR Bengaluru MEMU and the Kolar-Bengaluru Cantonment DEMU, had ground to a halt near Tyakal station, 60 km from Bengaluru, due to the grid failure at 5.15 am. The track in which the Shatabdi was to run was sandwiched between the two and passengers were whiling away time by walking on it.
Asked about the incident, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division, Shyam Singh, said the electric power disruption at 5.15 am was restored around 9 am. “We are still looking into the reasons behind it. The LP was whistling freely urging him to leave the tracks according to our station master at Tyakal but he did not,” he said.
A source said that the Over Head Equipment (OHE) was impacted on the three routes of Whitefield-Kengeri, Rajanakunte-Yesvantpur and Baiyappanahalli to Yesvantpur. A total of 21 trains enroute suffered delays ranging between two and three hours. Diesel locos were being used to run trains. Tyakal has a Foot Over Bridge connecting its platforms and the public must use them and not the tracks, another official said.
Sharif is unmarried and survived by his parents and two brothers.