It was late, but Ramgobind (42) and Shyam Lal (48) were in their fields abutting Raghunathpur village on Wednesday night, watering the crop. At 9.50pm, they heard a bang, and there were sparks in the sky. They were afraid, and thought at first, it was a bolt of lightning. But there was no rain, and the sparks kept flying. They rushed towards the direction of the sound, the Raghunathpur railway station, to find a mangled train in front of them.
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“All we could hear was screams, and virtually the entire train had toppled. The electric wires had snapped, and there were so many sparks that they were visible from a distance. We could not understand what to do, so we called the Gram Raksha Dal (a village volunteer organisation) that arrived with whatever they could find,” Ramgobind said.
Ramgobind and Shyam Lal were among the first responders to the derailment of 23 bogies of the North East Express that left four people dead and at least 30 injured.
News spread quickly, and more and more people from villages nearby streamed out to help. Some came with water, others with ladders, ropes and torches. “The government rescue teams came after an hour-and-a-half. The darkness made everything difficult. We tried to help people crawl out of the bogies, some of which had completely tilted. There were children inside, and everyone was confused and in a daze. Some who were uninjured joined us in helping others,” Shyam Lal said.
Dhiraj Kumar, headmaster of an upgraded high school in Raghunathpur said, “Villagers from Kaithi, Rajpur, Baswar and Pokhraha all reached the spot, carried injured passengers on their bikes and rushed to a nearby community health centre.” The local police, the district magistrate and superintendent of police arrived within an hour of the accident that took place at 9:51pm, he said.
Inside the train, Kartik Yadav from Satna in Madhya Pradesh said most passengers were either asleep or preparing to, but that there was some foreboding of the accident. “There were jerks in the train for 10 to 15 minutes before the train stopped. They were so strong that many fell from their berths. When it stopped, it became clear that there was an accident. Many were trapped under luggages, the lights went off. It was dark and scary,” he said.
Another passenger who escaped unhurt said, “Everything inside the bogies – slippers, toys, edible items, cold drinks – were all thrown around. When the train jerked and wobbled, there was panic and people tried to rush out. We were afraid of what would happen next, like a fire.”
