CUDDALORE: The driver of the school van C Sankar (47) and the student V Viswesh (16), who survived the train-school van accident at the manned level crossing in Semmankuppam on Tuesday morning, denied Southern Railway’s claim that the gate that was closed for the train to pass was opened on the driver’s insistence.
Many residents also denied SR’s “preliminary inquiry”, which said Sankar insisted the gate to be opened to reaching the school on time.
Both Sankar and Viswesh, undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital in Cuddalore, told the TNIE the gate was wide open and the gatekeeper, Pankaj Sharma, was nowhere to be seen when the van was crossing the gate. “The gate was already open. There was no signal or sound indicating that the train was coming,” said Sankar.
A villager, requesting anonymity, said, “The gate was open, and we didn’t see him (Sharma) outside”. The villagers said even the passengers and the railway employees in the train that came to a halt were seen scolding Sharma for leaving the gate open.
Southern Railway’s Tiruchy Divisional Manager MS Anbalagan, who inspected the spot along with other officials to oversee the relief and rescue efforts, told the media there were mistakes on both sides. “The villagers asked the gate to be opened, and the gatekeeper opened it, violating the safety rules,” he said.
The initial statement from SR said Sharma “had proceeded” to close the gate, but opened it on Sankar’s insistence. A release issued later said the gate was in “closed condition” but Sankar coerced him to open it.
The villagers said the van from Krishnaswamy Vidyanikethan School crosses the track twice in the morning. Had the incident happened after it picked up every student, at least 25 children would have been there in the vehicle.
The villagers also objected to the time of the accident being mentioned as 7.45 am in the railway’s release. They said the accident must have happened around 7.20 am. A query with the railway’s National Train Enquiry System ‘Spot Your Train’ facility showed the Villupuram–Mayiladuthurai passenger (56813) departed the Cuddalore Port Junction (CPJ) station at 7.16 am on Tuesday, against the scheduled time of 7.04 am.
Semmankuppam, the accident spot is located between CPJ and Alapakkam stations. As per schedule, the train, should take only 12 minutes to reach Alapakkam. Hence, it is likely that the train that left CPJ at 7.16 am could have crossed Semmankuppam around 7.20 am.
Although there was no curvature near the gate, the villagers said there are wild bushes along the track that hinders visibility. “There were women gatekeepers earlier, who did their job properly, and even cleared the bushes occasionally,” one of the villagers said.
The railway officials who carried out repair works at the site to resume train services in the stretch cleared the bushes on Tuesday.
The gatekeeper Sharma, who is not from Tamil Nadu, lives near the accident spot and has minimal interactions with the villagers due to language barriers. A local acquaintance said he has not seen Sharma consuming alcohol, but is always on his phone watching videos, an allegation levelled by many other villagers as well. He was rescued from angry villagers initially by a team led by SP S Jeyakumar, and was taken for inquiry at Railway police station at Chidambaram.
He has been booked and shall be sent to judicial remand, sources said.