Two passengers from Jagatsinghpur district travelling in the Coromandel Express narrowly escaped the mishap on Friday evening and returned to their villages unhurt. They described their life as a rebirth by the grace of God.
The survivors were identified as Er Berendra Kumar Rout hailing from Ainipur village under Raghunathpur block and Dibakar Das, a resident of Bastapada village under Kissan Nagar police limits. They were travelling in the ill-fated train from Shalimar station in West Bengal.
Remembering the shocking incident, Er Rout said, “I boarded the S5 coach seat number 65 at Shalimar and was travelling to Cuttack with another three passengers. All of a sudden, between Khantapada and Bahanaga, a huge crackling sound was heard and within no time, coach S5 got detached from coach S4 and derailed. Fortunately, the coach dashed into a wall and plunged there. The entire mishap happened in only five to ten seconds, with the atmosphere filled with screaming of passengers for help. A few of his co-passengers were hurt suffering profuse bleeding from head to body. Still, fortunately, by the grace of God, I descended from the train unhurt, along with my three co-passengers Dilip Kumar Pattnaik, Ranjan Kumar Das, and Sunaj Kumar Das. Later after receiving fast aid, we returned to our villages on June 4.”
Dibakar Das who was travelling in coach S2 seat number 25 revealed that the coach was fully packed with passengers. “The coach overturned thrice during the accident and 80 percent of the passengers got severe injuries and 19 were recovered dead from the coach by the rescuers when I managed to get out of the coach. I saw that the coach was completely smashed and people were lying across the track screaming for help.”