At least seven labourers were killed and 1 other critically injured in Odisha’s Jajpur Keonjhar Road railway station after being run over by a goods train on Wednesday. The labourers had sheltered from heavy rain under the goods train when it started rolling.
“There was a sudden thunderstorm. The labourers were working at a railway siding where a goods train was standing stationary. They sheltered under it but unfortunately, the goods train which did not have an engine attached to it started moving causing the accident,” said a railway spokesperson.
The injured persons were admitted to SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.
In a statement, the East Coast Railway said, “The contractual labourers engaged by a contractor for railway work took shelter under the stabled rake to get protection from the wind and rain of Norwester near Jajpur Keonjar Road (station).”
The reserve rake without an engine started rolling due to the thunderstorm causing the accident, it said.
The incident comes five days after the tragic triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district which 288 people were killed and over 1,000 others injured. Despite the scorching heat, people armed with their mobile cameras have arrived at the accident site to see the mangled remains of the trains involved in the crash.
Though railway authorities had screened off the area with green cloth, the strewn coaches now removed on the sides of the tracks can be easily seen.
The Coromandel Express was diverted onto a loop line before it slammed into a stationary goods train on Friday night. The collision flipped the carriages of the Coromandel Express onto another track.
The derailed compartments were then struck by the rear carriages of another train, the Howrah Superfast Express from Bengaluru, which was passing in the opposite direction.
While trains began operating late Sunday past the crash site, Wednesday’s journey is the first service of the Coromandel Express to resume the route.
