139 killed on railway tracks in 2019, 22 of them were suicides: Patiala GRP data

The records show that 348 people have died on railway tracks in the past three years — 78 in 2017, 131 in 2018, and 139 last year

As many as 139 lives were lost on railway tracks in district last year, 22 of these were suicides, state official records of the government railway police (GRP), Patiala.

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An official said that illegally crossing the tracks was one of the main reasons behind these deaths.

An official of the GRP, Patiala, pleading anonymity, said that 139 people had died on the railway tracks in 2019. While 22 of the victims had committed suicide, 19 had died of natural causes.

The records show that 348 people have died on railway tracks in the past three years — 78 in 2017, 131 in 2018, and 139 last year.

Another official said that most of the deaths were reported in the urban areas, where colonies are located alongside the tracks. “There is a lack of boundary walls along the tracks. And there is an immediate need of construction of walls along the railway tracks,” he said.

“Also, people have made illegal paths at places where the boundary walls were constructed,” he added.

Gurdarshan Singh, station house officer (SHO) Patiala GRP, said, “Most of the incidents took place in the urban areas because people took short cut and tried to cross the railway tracks instead of using overbridges to get to the other side of the track.”

“And most natural deaths witnessed at the railway station were of homeless people and beggars having a cardiac arrest, or dying of some other serious ailment,” he added.