Title - TN Express mishap: The hero who brought the train to a halt

Ram Sudhakar (32), an insurance companymanager, turned out to be the hero of an otherwise Black Monday. It was he who raised the alarm and alerted the co-passengers in the ill fated S -11 compartment of the Tamil Nadu Express about the fire. In addition to alerting the fellow passengers, he pulled the chain to bring the train to halt.“I don’t sleep much during train journeys. When I heard a loud sound around 4.15 am and saw flames form the electrical panel near the toilet, I immediately shouted and pulled the alarm chain before running towards the door on the other end of the compartment. Since I was sleeping on the side lower berth I could run but those in the upper berths had no such luck,” said Sudhakar, a branch manager of United India Insurance who boarded the train from Vijayawada.He told reporters at Chennai that he was fortunate to have occupied berth no 7 whereas the fire had started near berth 72. “That gave me enough time to wake up others and open one of the doors closest to me. Since the other door was stuck all of us had to jump out only through one door. Luckily the train had started to slow down,” he recalled.As the train came to a halt Sudhakar heard someone calling out from the burning coach. He climbed back to see two elderly couple and he dragged them and pushed them out. “They asked me to rescue their daughter as well but by then the smoke was so thick I could hardly breathe and had to jump out to save myself. I later learnt that the poor lady, who was going to Chennai for treatment, had died,” he said.

A senior railway officer who did not want his name to be quoted, said Sudhakar’s act brought the train to a halt. “A moving train would have only fanned the flames and helped it to engulf other bogies especially those behind coach S11. Even from outside the coach, the heat was so unbearable and I shudder to imagine how the victims inside the coach would have felt,” said the official.

Eighteen survivors of the coach S11 arrived at Chennai Central by the delayed TN Express. They were hugged by tearful relatives who, till a few hours ago, were on tenterhooks as news about the ghastly accident spread. “Luckily my brother Rohit Shah called me from his mobile after jumping out of the train with his wife and daughter. They were at the other end of coach so where able to get out fast,” said Rahul Shah who runs a wholesale business in Chennai with his elder brother Rohit.