A Vegetable vendor uses umbrella to avert Thane train accident

mangaloretoday.com/ yahoo

Mumbai, September 2: A vegetable vendor working beside railway tracks averted a major accident of Thane-bound fast train on Sunday morning. When he saw 1.5 ft portion of a track was missing between Kanjurmarg and Bhandup stations, he immediately ran on the line and waived an umbrella. This act alerted the motorman that something was wrong and immediately applied emergency brakes.

A few minutes before, a Badlapur train had crossed the rail fracture and its motorman reported a heavy jerk to the emergency control. When the second fast train was approaching, the vegetable grower spotted the defect and waved his umbrella towards the motorman. The motorman and the guard successfully stopped the train seconds before the track damage spot.

The vegetable grower, identified as Darshan Chauhan, said that he heard very loud clanging sound of the tracks and found it unusual. When he inspected the tracks, he found it broken. That’s when he waived his umbrella to alert the motorman of the approaching train.

"Services, which were diverted on the Kalyan slow line for repair work, resumed within 75 minutes," the Central railway spokesperson said. "The crew of the train and the control official will be awarded for averting any untoward incident,” said Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, CR.