A senior assistant loco pilot, put his life at stake to reset the alarm chain of an Express train.
Railways keeps informing people about the inconvenience pulling the alarm chain in the train can cause - and the danger it can put the staff into. A recent incident that took place between Titwala and Khadavali, about 80 km from Mumbai, is an example of that.
Ministry of Railways posted a video on Twitter in which Sathish Kumar, a senior assistant loco pilot, put his life at stake to reset the alarm chain of an Express train, which had halted on a river bridge.
The incident took place on May 6 after a passenger of the Godan Express (bound for Chhapra in Bihar) pulled the emergency chain in the train. In order to restart the train, resetting it from the coach where it was pulled in was necessary. In Godan Express, that happened to be the second last coach, according to news agency PTI.
So, Mr Kumar had to go all the way back to the coach and crawl under the train from a narrow gap between the wheel and other underbelly equipment to reset the alarm chain knob, as seen in the video.
In its tweet, the Railways ministry appealed to the passengers not to needlessly pull alarm chains in trains.
“Pulling the Alarm Chain for no reason can cause trouble to many! Satish Kumar, Asst. Loco Pilot of CR, took the risk of resetting Alarm Chain of Godan Express,halted over the River Bridge between Titwala & Khadavli Station. Pull the chain of a train only in case of an emergency," the tweet said.
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The video has been viewed over 25,000 views and 1,828 likes on twitter.
People have shown their outrage against the culprits in the comment section of the post.
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“Strict action should have been taken against culprits,” a user wrote.
“Your Loco Pilot's effort n bravery is praiseworthy in resetting the alarm chain of the train that is mentioned here. I would suggest please carry safety gears and should worn while doing such activities. Being a safety trainer, I request this to follow,” another user commented.
Pulling the emergency chain in a coach without any valid reason is a crime, according to Indian Railways Act. But in Central Railway zone alone, 157 such incidents have taken place between April 1 and April 20 this year. A total of 326 chain-pulling cases were reported in 2020, while 356 chain-pulling cases were reported in 2019.