Puttur: Quick Thinking School Students Avert Train Mishap

News and Pics by Mounesh Vishwakarma 
Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (RD/CN)

Puttur, Dec 9: Five school students averted a major train accident on the South Western Railway (SWR) route between Mangalore and Bangalore, near Kabaka, recently. The presence of mind shown by local high school students Mohammed Munawar Uppinangady, Mohammed Asif Barimar, Fayaz Barimar, Shafi Surikumer, and Tanveer Guruvayanakere, averted the derailment of a goods train.

The students noticed that the fish plates of the railway tracks had come loose at Mittur, as they took a shortcut to Kabaka High School via the train tracks. At the same time, they heard the goods train chugging along on the same track, some distance away. One of the students pulled out a red sports jacket from his school bag and waved till the engine driver brought the train to an abrupt halt just a few yards from where they stood. The damage was reported to the railway authorities who then had it repaired.

It was a classic instance of lessons taught in school coming in handy for these students who knew that in an extreme case, a train could be halted by flashing a red cloth.  The derailment of the goods train would have disrupted the schedule of long distance trains along the route and the timely action helped save numerous people from cancelled train journeys and prevented a major loss to the railways.