Title - If only the Railways had acted on time…

Five precious lives could have been saved on Sunday had the railways completed the project to convert all the 44 unmanned level crossings between Ernakulam and Kayamkulam section, on time.

So much for the promise in the railway budget and another one by minister of state for railways, K. H. Muniyappa, who said all unmanned level crossings would be converted into manned ones with immediate effect. Sad to say, only 20 of them have been manned over the last one year.

Compounding the tragedy is the fact that the guard-room and the level crossing gate at the mishap site have been in place for the last eight months. But the railways failed to deploy the staff there to make it functional.

“Even that building was constructed unscientifically as it blocks the view of drivers. This is precisely what happened today”, said Aroor MLA A.M.Arif. He said that a protest had been launched demanding the immediate deployment of staff there.

When contacted, Area Manager P.L. Ashok Kumar said the railways was still in the process of converting unmanned level crossings into manned ones. “We’ll deploy staff at the rail mishap site by Monday or Tuesday. The conversion process is a continuous one and we’ve been doing it on a priority basis, based on the density of vehicles passing through”.

This is the scenario at most of the proposed sites. The civil works have been completed but then they have not created the additional 150 posts. “Though a few ex-military personnel were recruited for the purpose, they are being deployed for track maintenance”, said SRMU divisional secretary S. Gopikrishna.

There are currently 407 level crossings under the Thiruvananthapuram division out of which close to a 100 are unmanned. The over 100-km long Ernakulam-Kayamkulam section has perhaps the highest density of level crossings across the country and it’s a huge task for the railways to fund the conversion project.

And legally, the mishaps are all the result of “trespassing and not even eligible for compensation”, but the railways should deploy personnel at the level crossings on a war footing to prevent similar mishaps.

Family function turns tragic

They had all assembled at Sumesh’s house in connection with the marriage proposal of his brother Jinish alias Appu.

Trikunnapuzha-native Karthikeyan (70), Narayanan (65) of Perumbalam and Poochakal-native Chellappan (60), the fathers-in-law of Sumesh's three sisters, had come to Kalathil house on Sunday morning to receive the relatives of the prospective bride who came to pay a visit to Sumesh's place.

As decided earlier, the function took place on Sunday morning itself. After that, Sumesh who works as a taxi driver volunteered to drop Karthikeyan, Narayanan and Chellappan at the Aroor bus stop nearby. And just before leaving, Sumesh took along with him the toddler Nelfin, his neighbour.

Little one loved bikes and cars

Nelfin Wilson, the toddler who was killed in the tragic accident at Aroor, was fond of motorbikes and cars, according to neighbours and relatives. The two-year-old boy was also very close to his neighbour Sumesh, whose car met with the mishap on Sunday afternoon.

“He was such a cheerful kid, who used to get along with everyone who had a bike or car. Sumesh’s house is very close to Nelfin’s and the former used to pamper the kid a lot. Since Nelfin was fond of cars, he used to accompany Sumesh on short trips. That could be the reason why the boy went along with Sumesh on Sunday afternoon,” said Augustine, Sumesh’s neighbour.

It is learnt that Sumesh promised Libi, the boy’s mother, that he would be back in a few minutes and took Nelfin along with him. Sumesh was on the way to Aroor bus stop to drop Karthikeyan, Narayanan and Chellappan.

The tragic news of the accident shocked the entire village, while a pal of gloom descended on both the houses. Wilson, father of Nelfin, is a handicapped man who works in Dhanalaxmi bank. Nelfin was the only child of Wilson-Libi couple.

‘Building blocked driver’s view’

“I was behind the Indica car that met with the tragic accident. I guess, there was some carelessness on the part of the car driver (Sumesh), as he failed to stop the car and check if a train was coming. There was a building adjoining the level cross. The driver must have missed the train because this building blocked his view,” said Jayanand, an autorickshaw driver, who was a witness to the accident.

“The car was going towards west and the train was coming from north. I could easily see the train fast approaching. As the car just entered the railway track, everybody around shouted and asked the driver to move back. But there was little time to reverse the car and the train hit the vehicle with all might.”

“The woman passenger in my autorickshaw was shell-shocked and fainted on watching the smash. I woke her up immediately and ran to the car along with other people. Sumesh was lying inside the car, belted to the driving seat. He was alive. The boy was lying some 30 metres away from the spot,” he added. The other three died on the spot.

“So we immediately took the car driver and the boy to the Lakeshore hospital. But, the two were dead before we reached the hospital. It was a horrifying scene. We are sad that we could not save their lives despite bringing them to the hospital as soon as possible.”