E-Paper
Stuck tractor forces Rajdhani Express loco pilot to apply emergency brake
No one was hurt but the unscheduled halt of the train in Jharkhand around 4.45pm on Tuesday disrupted rail traffic for around 45 minutes
The loco pilot of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express was forced to apply an emergency brake as a tractor got stuck at a manned railway crossing just before the premier train was to pass by in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, officials said. No one was hurt but the unscheduled halt around 4.45pm on Tuesday disrupted rail traffic for around 45 minutes, they added.
Senior divisional commercial manager Vikas Kumar said that the loco pilot managed to stop the train on time. He added the gateman at the crossing was suspended after a preliminary probe. “He should have allowed the tractor to pass the drop gate once the vehicle crossed the rail lines,” he added.
Kumar said that the tractor driver panicked and ran away. “As the train reached the crossing, the loco pilot applied the emergency brake and stopped the train,” said Kumar.
A video that surfaced on Wednesday showed the tractor stuck between the train and the drop gate at the Santhaldih railway crossing near Bhojudih station in the Adra division under the southeastern railways.
Officials said that the loco pilot averted an accident by applying the brakes days after India’s worst train crash in nearly three decades in Odisha’s Balasore last week left 288 people dead.
