A head-on collision between the Coimbatore-Chennai Intercity Express and the Hyderabad-Thiruvananthapuram Sabari Express at Uthukuli near Tirupur in Tamil Nadu was averted on Sunday morning, thanks to the alert loco pilot of the Intercity Express.
Due to the failure of the automatic signals at Uthukuli at around 7.30 a.m., the tracks had been clamped manually. Railway officials told The Hindu that while setting the ‘point,’ Dilip Kumar, the pointsman, had clamped the tracks in the reverse direction, diverting the Inter-City Express (Train No: 2680) and the Sabari Express (Train no: 17230) onto the same track on the Uthukuli-Erode stretch just outside the Uthukuli station.
According to sources, after the manual setting of the point, the Inter-City Express loco pilot was given a memo (a written instruction) from the Uthukuli station master to proceed.
However, the pilot moved ahead with caution and noticed that his train had been diverted onto the track on which the Sabari Express was positioned outside the railway station. He immediately applied the brakes and brought the train to a halt about 100 metres from the other train.
“If both trains were coming at high speed, it could have turned into a disaster,” said R.M. Senthil Kumar, a chartered accountant who was travelling on the Inter-City Express.
Inquiry under way Following the incident, B.S. Rajan, senior divisional safety officer, and other senior railway officials visited the scene.
Divisional Railway Manager (Salem Division) Shubhranshu told The Hindu that Mukesh Kumar, the station master of Uthukuli station, and Dilip Kumar, the pointsman, were placed under suspension for negligence.
(Additional reporting from Syed Muthahar Saqaf, Salem)
