PURPOSELY POSTED ON THE BLOG FORUM:TO KNOW HOW A TRAIN DRIVER SAVED THE PLIGHT OF 40 LAKH PEOPLE TRAVELLING DAILY
I AM POSTING A NEWS FORUM:
Hit by Paver block, train driver keeps schedule on track
Train driver Pradeep Kumar pushed the bar of professional commitment several notches higher by piloting a train from Ghatkopar to Kalyan despite being injured in a freak accident....
more... Even though he had the option of stopping for medical aid, he chose not to, because any delay on his part would have thrown the evening peak-hour suburban schedule completely haywire.
Forty-five-year-old Kumar was piloting the CST-Pune Pragati Express on Friday evening, as he has been doing for more than a decade now.
The train arrived at Ghatkopar station around 4:50 pm and crossed the fifth pole and signal S22 at exactly 4:54 pm, when a heavy and sharp object crashed through the lookout glass of the locomotive engine.
Pradeep Kumar at the Railway Hospital in Kalyan
The object - which later turned out to be a paver block which had been stacked beside the Ghatkopar-Vikhroli overbridge mashed the glass and the shards pierced Kumar's face, neck and hands. For a second, Kumar experienced a blackout, as the wounds on his face and neck began oozing blood.
The guard of the train, RS Naik, called up CR control immediately and narrated the incident. The train was delayed at the spot till 5:01pm but then an injured Kumar bounced back with remarkable resilience and told the anxious officials that he would pilot the train till Kalyan so that the train didn't get inordinately delayed.
Kumar's decision was critical. Officials said had he waited for medical aid at the spot, the suburban schedule would have been badly affected because the Pragati Express like all other long distance trains from CST uses the fast line to Thane and beyond.