Railway man saves daughter's friend, but loses his life

CHENNAI: A 48-year-old railway employee died in tragic circumstances at a suburban railway station on Saturday. Minutes after he saved a student from being run over by a passenger train at Kodambakkam, Seshadri was hit by the flank of the moving train and injured. He died later in a hospital. 

According to the railway police, Seshadri, a resident of the Ice House in Triplicane, acted swiftly when he saw his daughter's friend Anupriya, 18, slip and begin to slide on to the track through the gap between the train and the platform as she hustled along with a group of friends to board a passenger train. 

Seshadri, who works in the finance wing at the Southern Railway headquarters near Chennai Central, grabbed her and hauled her back on to the platform. However, before they could recover from the shock and move away to safety, the train started to move. Its sides knocked Seshadri and the girl to the platform. They suffered injuries. 

Police said there was panic as commuters on the platform rushed to their rescue. A few of them called for an ambulance service. But, when an ambulance did not come immediately, they took Seshadri and Anupriya to a nearby private hospital in an autorickshaw. 

Sources said Seshadri was declared 'brought dead'. It is suspected that he may have sustained internal injuries when he was flung to the platform after being hit by the train which had picked up speed. 

Suburban journeys are fraught with risks. There is a mismatch between platform level and floor level of trains at stations. In most of the cases, the gap differs for suburban trains and main line EMUs. This puts commuters at risk when they hustle in the crowd to board trains. 

Recently, a commuter had a miraculous escape after she fell on to a track while trying to board a suburban train. She lay there until the train passed the spot. In spite of conducting several awareness programmes, the railways has not been able to reduce the number of deaths on tracks in the suburban section. 

Every day, five to six people are run over by suburban trains in the city while crossing tracks, according to officials.