Notebooks bearing the name T. Charumathy, a school bag, tiffin boxes and shoes of children seen strewn near the railway track and the wreckage of the school van at Cuddalore's Semmankuppam are heart wrenching and render one sleepless.
The horrific accident involving a school van and a passenger train at Cuddalore, just north of Chennai, has claimed the lives of three children, leaving the van driver and another boy injured.
The van, belonging to Krishnaswamy Vidyanikethan (a private CBSE school), was hit by the train while attempting to pass through the level crossing gate #170, a non-interlocked manned gate between Cuddalore and Alappakkam.
Charumathy and her younger brother, T. Chezhiyan, studying in class 11 and 10 respectively, were two out of four students travelling in the van.
Dravida Mani, a farm worker, had dropped both his children in the school van and had proceeded to work. However, within minutes, he received a call that devastated him and his wife Kalaiselvi. The family was completely shattered and devastated.
While had Charumathy died on the spot, Chezhiyan was unconscious, but looked unhurt. He was taken to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), but did not make it.
The family is inconsolable seeing the two children who boarded the school bus, only to return as lifeless bodies just within minutes.
“She wanted to be a doctor. Chezhiyan wanted to be an IAS officer,” says Charumathy’s uncle.
“They were two lovely children. My daughter-in-law, though a farm worker, raised them with so much love and care. The two were very good at studies,” says Charumathy’s grandmother, as tears roll down her cheeks.
The family of another victim, Nimalesh, is also devastated. While Nimalesh died on the spot, his elder brother had suffered injuries.
“Doctors have said he has a fracture. I lost my son Nimalesh because of the carelessness of the gatekeeper,” cries Nimalesh’s father.
The entire Semmankuppam village is completely shaken, while the investigation into the tragedy has revealed two contradictory narratives.
Though the van driver claims that the gate was open when he attempted to pass through the level crossing, southern railways had claimed that the van driver insisted that gatekeeper Pankaj Sharma open the gate.
However the van driver claimed that the gate was already kept open by Sharma and he was not seen near the gate.
“The gatekeeper should not have opened the gate. He has been suspended and the process has been initiated for his dismissal from service. He was arrested on the basis of a First Information Report filed against him for criminal negligence,” Southern Railway said in a release.
Eyewitnesses, however, claimed that the gate remained open even before the train arrived, and that the gatekeeper had not noticed the approaching train.
“I heard a loud noise, accompanied by wails, and rushed out of my house. I looked out across my compound wall and saw the mangled remains of the van on the side of the track. The gate remained open. I tried to rescue the children when I came in contact with an overhead power cable,” says Annadurai, a resident of Semmankuppam. He is also admitted to the hospital as the power cable fell on his head while trying to rescue the children.
“The carelessness of the gatekeeper is the reason for the tragic accident. There are around 490 manned level crossings in the Tiruchi Division of Southern Railway. Most of the gatekeepers are from the northern parts of the country. The Railways should consider posting locals as the gatekeepers,” declared Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar.