3 WR employees run over while at work on track

Three employees from the signalling department of Western Railway were run over by a train while attending to a point failure. The employees were dragged for 50 meters and declared brought-dead at a hospital. Investigations are being conducted to determine the cause of the incident.

Three employees from the signalling department of the Western Railway (WR) were run over by a local train when they were attending to a point failure between Vasai and Naigaon stations on Monday night, the Government Railway Police (GRP) said.

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A Vasai GRP officer, quoting witnesses, said the three were dragged for around 50 metres by a Virar-Churchgate local at 8.59 pm.

The deceased have been identified as chief signalling inspector Vasu Mitra, 56, electrical signalling maintenance person Somnath Uttam Lambutre, 37, and helper Sachin Wankhede, 37. Mitra was a resident of Vasai East while Somnath lived in Saphale and Wankhede in Virar.

According to the trio’s colleagues, Mitra was writing the root cause report after Lambutre and Wankhede attended to the point failure when three trains – two from Naigaon to Vasai and one from Vasai to Naigaon – passed through the spot at the same time. The three did not likely notice the train headed towards them on the track on which they were standing as two other trains were moving in the opposite direction on the tracks to their left and right, they added.

“The motorman could not stop in time as the train was travelling at a high speed. The spot where the incident occurred is dark; perhaps the workers got confused,” the GRP officer said.

GRP officials said they were informed about the incident by the station master at 9.10 pm, following which they went to the spot along with Railway Protection Force officers. The three employees were taken to a Vasai-based hospital where they were declared brought-dead.

“We have registered an accidental death report and are investigating whether it was a result of negligence on the part of the trio, or the motorman of the train concerned,” said Sachin Ingavale, senior police inspector with Vasai GRP.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mitra’s body was handed over to his family while the bodies of Lambutre and Wankhede were sent to their hometowns in Solapur and Nagpur, respectively, said a WR employee who was present at the spot for panchnama.

Mitra is survived by wife Mohini and son Vyas, who is a student of science at a college in Nalasopara. Though in a state of shock, his family said Mitra was dedicated to his work and had served in the Railways for 28 years.

“A puja was organised in our housing society on Monday evening to mark the consecration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. I left for the puja at 7pm, keeping a kurta and pyjama ready for my husband,” said Mohini.

Around 7.30pm, she said, she saw Vasu near their building’s entrance, clad in a T-shirt and jeans. She assumed that he did not want to wear the kurta, but their son told her that he had to rush to work as there was an emergency call from the control room.

“That was the last time I saw him,” said Mohini, adding it was not unusual for him to rush to work as he was on duty 24 hours. “Usually, he managed the situation on phone, but when it could not be tackled by juniors, he had to reach the spot,” she said.

One of their neighbours said, “Vasu was liked by everyone in the society as we had known him and his family for the last eight years, when they moved here.”