Odisha train accident: Trader crawls out of mangled compartment, survives

Manikal Tewary was among the few lucky of the 100-plus passengers who survived even as their S1 coach was damaged after it hit the goods train and derailed

Manikal Tewary, 50, a trader, was recording a video on his phone after boarding the Coromandel Express en route to Cuttack on Friday. Before he could finish the recording, the train went off the tracks and hit another one before crashing into a parked freight train.

Manikal Tewary, one of the survivors. (HT PHOTO)

Tewary was among the few lucky of the 100-plus passengers, who survived even as their S1 coach was damaged after it hit the goods train and derailed.

His brother, Chandanlal, said when the train sped up to 130 km per hour, Manikal Tewary took out his mobile phone for the recording. But soon, he found himself with a bleeding hand and head trying to get out while several passengers lay dead in the dark coach filled with smoke.

“When my brother managed to get out, he saw that his coach was completely smashed and hundreds of people were lying across the tracks dead,” said Chandanlal.

He tried to take his bag out, but could not succeed. “A little disoriented and traumatised, he started walking on the railway tracks with his phone in his hand. He then called me, but I could not take his call.”

After walking for a few minutes, Tewary asked a man to take him to the nearby primary health centre at Khantapada. “I did not know about the train tragedy until he called me up again from the health centre. When the doctors heard about my brother’s survival, they could not believe it. The S1 coach was totally mangled. A young couple was seated in front of him ...the man died while his wife survived.”

Subhranshu Behera, 20, a resident of Balasore, said he was talking to his mother over the phone when the train sped towards Bahanaga station before the crash. “The next thing I remember is the coach turning turtle...I was hurled around with several other passengers. I searched for my uncle but could not find him in the dark. I was bleeding and somehow managed to get out of the coach stepping on someone’s severed limb or decapitated body.”

He said he started crying and ran towards a nearby paddy field where he slept for some time. “Someone then saw me lying and took me to the primary health centre in Gopalpur where I called up my parents,” said Behera.

Not many were as lucky. Bikhipta Palei, 38, a computer teacher at an engineering college in Balasore, called his brother after boarding the general compartment and said he was playing ludo. “An hour later, he would have been home in Bhadrak town and playing with his daughter. But everything is now over,” said his brother Pradip Kumar Palei as he broke down after seeing the body of his younger sibling.

Palei Bikhipta, the father of a four-year-old daughter, boarded the Coromandel Express at Balasore as he would every day after work.

At Bahanaga high school, where over 180 bodies were kept for identification, the family of Ramesh Jena, a 38-year-old tea seller in Chennai searched for his body frantically. They hoped he was alive.

Jena had returned home to Odisha 20 days ago after his mother died.

He boarded the general compartment of the Coromandel Express to return to Chennai. “...someone called up from his mobile saying he is no more. I looked for his body, but could not find it in the school. I would search for his body in the local community health centre. I hope he is alive,” said Jena’s brother.