A woman passenger at a collapsed middle berth 22651 Chennai-Palakkad Express on the train. |Picture source: Special arrangement
A woman passenger fell down while she was asleep after a sleeper class coach’s middle berth. The incident happened shortly after crossing Jolarpet earlier on Monday, when the Chennai-Palakkad Express train 22651 took place. The victim’s husband claimed that the railway authorities did not provide more than an hour of first aid until the train arranged an ambulance in Salem.
Suria Murugan, 39, of Chennai, sleeps on the berth, according to railway sources. 1 (lower berth) When the idle middle berth suddenly landed on her left and right, the other passengers warned her husband Jyothi Jayashankar that he was sleeping with another coach. When Ms Suria was seen bleeding from a head injury, he sought medical assistance from a travel ticket examiner (TTE) and other railway staff on the train.
“There is no first aid kit on the train. They don’t even provide cotton rolls. TTE says we can get off at the next stop [Morappur] And seek help there. But, in the middle of the night, what can we do in an unknown place? My wife managed to control the bleeding with a cloth and we traveled nearly an hour and a half from Salem. ” Hindu.
After arriving in Salem at around 2.40 am, ambulance medical staff performed basic seasonings and transferred Ms. Surya to a government hospital. “We later took the Auto City to a private hospital and were delivered there. My wife had a deep cut and suture on her forehead. The railway didn’t help anything. Shockingly, the train for about 1,000 passengers didn’t even have a paramedic or first aid kit,” he said.
Railway sources said that during the Dindigul Junction inspection, it was found that the chain and locking mechanism of the intermediate berth were normal. The coach is allowed to serve without any changes. On March 16 this year, a regular overhaul of the sleeper class coach designed by ICF, manufactured in 2005, was underway in Chennai.
Railways accuse passengers
Asked about the circumstances leading up to the incident, Southern Railway spokesman M. Senthamil Selvan said: “The berth may have dropped due to improper locking of the passengers. The coach is 19 years old and is suitable for operation. He said there are a total of 154 ICF-designed rake runs in the area and will be fully immigrated to the LHB rake within three years.
On Monday night, the chief public relations officer said commercial and medical control personnel quickly arranged medical assistance, but passengers refused to disembark in Morapur. “The unfortunate incident appears to have occurred due to passengers’ mishandling of the chain link, which is the designated locking mechanism for the designated intermediate berth,” CPRO said.
publishing – May 12, 2025 at 09:29 pm ist
