After removing the engine and power car, Amar’s body was taken out
New Delhi:
A preliminary investigation has shown that due to lack of coordination between two railway employees during the shunting operation at Barauni Junction in Bihar on Saturday, one of them got trapped in the buffer of engine and power car and died.
A joint report signed by five railway officials said that the two points – Amar Kumar and Mohammad Suleman – failed to coordinate properly with each other as Suleman gave wrong signals to the loco driver, resulting in the death of 25-year-old Kumar. A clip of a dead body stuck in the middle of a buffer has gone viral on social media.
The pointman’s job is to separate the train engines from the coaches.
The initial report held Suleman responsible for the incident.
However, Suleman defended himself in his written application and held the loco driver responsible for the accident.
Suleman said he and Kumar disconnected the engine and power car by separating the center buffer coupler – the device that connects the engine to the coach.
He said that the engine moved a little far from the power car and when Kumar went to close the buffer coupler, the driver reversed the engine without giving him (Sulaiman) a hand signal.
“Because of this Amar (Kumar) got sandwiched between two buffers,” Suleman said.
A buffer is a shock-absorbing device on both sides of a train’s engine and coach, designed to reduce the impact of collisions between bogies.
According to the joint report, 15204 Lucknow-Barauni Express terminated at Barauni Junction at 8:10 am and the station master assigned Kumar and Suleman to separate the engine from the power car and the rest of the train.
“While separating the engine and the power car, Pointman Kumar got stuck between the two and died on the spot,” the report said.
After watching the footage of the CCTV cameras installed at the station, it was found that the accident took place at 8:29 am.
At 10:15 am, the engine and power car were separated and Kumar’s body was taken out and sent for post-mortem.
According to railway officials, another senior level probe was also ordered.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)