“It Could Have Been Me,” Man Survives Train Accident Because He Exchanged His Seat

In India’s worst train accident in the last 6 years, the ‘Indore-Patna Express’ train got derailed near Kanpur on Sunday, an unfortunate event that has got 142 people killed and 200 injured. Most of the people were sleeping when the incident happened at 3:10 am which left them in a state of utter shock and chaos. However, in this traumatising event, a man’s life was saved just because of a simple act of common courtesy.

Santosh Upadhyay, a journalist who was travelling in the same train exchanged his coach S2 seat with a lady when she asked him to take her coach S5 seat instead. S2 was one of the most badly hit coaches in the accident.

Upadhyay had a wait-listed ticket when he boarded the train from Ujjain on Saturday. He was assigned seat number 7 on coach S2 by the Ticket Examiner.

 

At night, a lady asked him to switch seats as she wanted to sit with her acquaintance. After recalling the horrible sight of mangled corpses he witnessed, hanging out of the S2 coach, Upadhyay said,

“It could have been me.”

The incident happened while he was returning to his seat from the toilet. He suddenly heard a loud noise and felt the train swinging. He then escaped through the emergency window and landed on the ground with injuries on his neck and back.

 

Upadhyay was perhaps the first person to inform the authorities about the accident. He contacted Bihar Railway CRPO and Kanpur Railway Control Room by 3:17 am. Explaining the intensity of the incident, he said, 

“You have seen it on TV, I have seen it up close. The coaches were flattened.”

 

Upadhyay managed to get away safely, and reached home by evening. However, he is still unsure of how to get on with his life.

“The physical injuries can heal, but what will I do to forget the horror I witnessed?”

Upadhyay was very lucky to escape such a horrific incident, but everyone wasn’t. This tragedy has again questioned the safety of lakhs of people commuting by the Indian Railways every day.

May the deceased souls rest in peace and everyone injured get a speedy recovery.

News Source: Times Of India

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