A young man who spotted a broken rail track and alerted the driver of an approaching Howrah-bound train to halt by waving his red underwear successfully averted a derailment on the fast track in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district on Saturday.
According to a report in Jagran, Chandrapal Saini, a resident of Bhainsia village, had gone out to relieve himself on Saturday morning at Katghar area of the district when he saw sparks coming from the wheels of a goods train passing by. Suspecting the track to be broken, Saini approached towards it.
After hearing the approaching train, Saini ran towards it waving his red underwear. The driver immediately applied emergency brakes and stopped the train averting a major accident.
The railway workers reached the spot shortly to fix the broken track.
Early in August, a major train mishap was averted near the Falaknuma Railway Bridge, when an eight-meter deep sinkhole formed right alongside and under the railway track following incessant rains in the city over the last one week.
The Bengaluru–New Delhi Rajdhani Express was the only train to operate on the route as of now, and a Railway Home Guard on patrol noticed the sinkhole and alerted higher-ups immediately, after which repairs were taken up.
“As passenger trains were not being operated at the moment, there was no accident. We have immediately closed the pit below the ballast with the required material,” an official said.
